I majored in Chinese. I was never really good at Chinese but I really, really benefited from having been exposed to Asian philosophy early in my life.

Good-looking individuals are treated better than homely ones in virtually every social situation, from dating to trial by jury.

Standards of beauty are arbitrary. Body shame exists only to the extent that our physiques don’t match our own beliefs about how we should look.

Given the eclectic and constantly shifting nature of my metaphysical inclinations, I will probably never feel certain exactly what an angel is.

People are so afraid of authority figures and doctors are authority figures.

I really do think that any deep crisis is an opportunity to make your life extraordinary in some way.

If you’re religious, it gives you a perspective.

If you’re living completely on your own, break out of solitary confinement. Seek to understand others, and help them understand you.

Almost all my middle-aged and elderly acquaintances, including me, feel about 25, unless we haven’t had our coffee, in which case we feel 107.

Children who assume adult responsibilities feel old when they’re young.

If you want to end your isolation, you must be honest about what you want at a core level and decide to go after it.

I have come to believe that there are infinite passageways out of the shadows, infinite vehicles to transport us into the light.

Whoever said love is blind is dead wrong. Love is the only thing that lets us see each other with the remotest accuracy.

Most of my clients don’t realize that the way they look and the way they think about their looks are two separate issues.

Every day brings new choices.

At times in my life, I have been utterly lonely. At other times, I’ve had disgusting infectious diseases. Try admitting these things in our culture.

Do whatever it takes to convey your essential self.

Absolutely lonely people have few personal interactions of any kind.

I majored in Chinese. I was never really good at Chinese but I really, really benefited from having been exposed to Asian philosophy early in my life.

The position that I take partly as a result of living in Asia is where you stop living according to your expectations and you become available to experience things as they are.

No one else can take risks for us, or face our losses on our behalf, or give us self-esteem. No one can spare us from life’s slings and arrows, and when death comes, we meet it alone.

Only since the Industrial Revolution have most people worked in places away from their homes or been left to raise small children without the help of multiple adults, making for an unsupported life.

My own nature hovers between neurotic and paranoid. I’ve developed the habit of mentally listing things that make me optimistic about the future. I do it every day.

The average adult laughs 15 times a day; the average child, more than 400 times.

Allowing children to show their guilt, show their grief, show their anger, takes the sting out of the situation.

As much horror as we have always created, we are a species that keeps moving forward, seeing new sights in new ways, and enjoying the journey.

Adults under threat feel like children.

Polite strangers often tell soothing lies about our physical appearance that prevent many of us from facing, discussing and solving our real problems.

Although beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, the feeling of being beautiful exists solely in the mind of the beheld.

We virtually never feel our age, but thinking that we should can lead to disaster.

Use anything you can think of to understand and be understood, and you’ll discover the creativity that connects you with others.

Caring for your inner child has a powerful and surprisingly quick result: Do it and the child heals.

Seek art from every time and place, in any form, to connect with those who really move you.

In one century, we’ve added 28 years to our average life span – a change so rapid that our brains couldn’t possibly have evolved to accommodate it.

I always felt that it was my job to try to help other people get it and deal with it.

Loneliness is proof that your innate search for connection is intact.

When you meet people, show real appreciation, then genuine curiosity.

What laughter is to childhood, sex is to adolescence.

No matter how difficult and painful it may be, nothing sounds as good to the soul as the truth.

Hopeful thinking can get you out of your fear zone and into your appreciation zone.

Basic human contact – the meeting of eyes, the exchanging of words – is to the psyche what oxygen is to the brain. If you’re feeling abandoned by the world, interact with anyone you can.

I don’t believe that there are no spiritual beings around us. I don’t know what to call them, I don’t know how they work. But I know they’re there.