A simple life is not seeing how little we can get by with-that's poverty-but how efficiently we can put first things first. . . . When you're clear about your purpose and your priorities, you can painlessly discard whatever does not support these, whether it's clutter in your cabinets or commitments on your calendar. (148)

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We do children an enormous disservice when we assume that they cannot appreciate anything beyond drive through fare and nutritionally marginal, kid-targeted convenience foods. Our children are capable of consuming something that grew in a garden or on a tree and never saw a deep fryer. They are capable of making it through diner at a sit-down restaurant with tablecloths and no climbing equipment. Children deserve quality nourishment.

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Follow the tugs in your heart. I think that everybody gets these gentle urges and should listen to them. Even if they sound absolutely insane, they may be worth going for.

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If you don't accept yourself, you won't live fully, and if you don't live fully you'll need to get full some other way.

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Self-esteem is the result of recognizing our personal power; awe and wonder come from recognizing our lack of it. Both are true, and in an exceptional life there is no conflict between them.

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Every person you see has stories, and every person you see has a few that would break your heart. We deserve each other's respect simply because we've survived all we have and kept going anyway.

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Just remember that those things that get attention flourish.

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Growing into your future ... requires a dedication to caring for yourself as if you were rare and precious, which you are, and regarding all life around you as equally so, which it is.

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Compassion in action may be the glorious possibility that could protect our crowded, polluted planet.

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Self-doubt is the greatest enemy of any new good habit.

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