It is not necessarily at home that we best encounter our true selves. The furniture insists that we cannot change because it does not; the domestic s… - Alain de Botton

To cut out every negative root would simultaneously mean choking off positive elements that might arise from it further up the stem of the plant. We should not feel embarrassed by our difficulties, only by our failure to grow anything beautiful from them.

Rather than struggling to become bigger fish, we might concentrate our energies on finding smaller ponds or smaller species to swim with, so our own size will trouble us less.

It would be insane to call Hamlet a loser, though he has lost and I think that is the lesson of tragedy.