"Tell me every terrible thing you ever did, and let me love you anyway."

"I hear some of you complaining “women always say they want a nice guy.” I know lots of women — I’m even related to a few — and I can’t say I’ve ever heard any of them say that. I can’t prove it, but this sounds like one of those things stand-up comedians say about women and everyone else just repeats. I’ve also never known a woman who cries when she breaks a nail — although I’ve known a few who swear like a 15-year-old sailor in jail — and I’ve never had a woman ask me if her outfit made her look fat unless she actually wanted and subsequently appreciated my opinion. So either I’ve stumbled upon a secret trove of women who aren’t passive-aggressive sob machines, or you need to stop mistaking Dane Cook routines for peer-reviewed sociological studies."

"Single people want relationships, settled people wonder if they’re missing out on something, traveling types miss stability, stable ones are restless, old friends want new friends, new friends miss old friends, and basically almost everyone my age has some dangling worry trailing around after them everywhere that they’re somehow not doing everything, that what they’re doing is not altogether the right thing, that they are missing out. … Do not be ashamed. The doubt is natural, and everyone you know – yes, even that person – carries it sometimes too. Allow yourself to be peaceful. Allow yourself satisfaction in what you have. If you really don’t like it, allow yourself permission to make changes."

"Maybe happiness is this: not feeling like you should be elsewhere, doing something else, being someone else."

"When you take the time to actually listen, with humility, to what people have to say, it’s amazing what you can learn."

"You deserve something you don’t have to question. You deserve someone who is sure of you."

"When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about."

"Someone once said to me when you find the person you love, love them everyday like it’s the last day you might get to love them and that not only changed me but changed the way I love."

"The more you know yourself, the more patience you have for what you see in others."

"Let go or be dragged."

"I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, ‘If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is.’"

"Never go to bed mad. Stay up and fight."

"Awake. Be the witness of your thoughts. You are what observes, not what you observe"

"Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power. If you realize that you have enough, you are truly rich."