Relationships

Though there is much of life that you must face alone, you cannot make it out here in this world by yourself. Don't leave your support system when you are in distress.

The more distracted we become, and the more emphasis we put on speed at the expense of depth, the less able we are to care.

It's easier to friend someone than to be someone's friend. It's easier to like things than to love them. It's easier to say nothing — but people who become used to saying nothing become used to being nobody.

There is no better use of a life than to be attentive to such needs. There are as many ways to do this as there are kinds of loneliness, but all of them require presence, all of them require the hard work of human computing.

Be vigilant in the struggle toward empathy. Consider the Happy Birthday Sir Despite the Circumstances possibility — the possibility that the lives and experiences of others are as complex and unpredictable as your own.

Remember the Holland in your life. When you've ascended these great heights and done these great things, go back and find that person and say, 'I've come a long way in life and I just wanted to tell you that you had something to do with that.'

You're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. Surrounding yourself with inspiring people is now just as important as being talented or working hard.

The daily activity that contributes most to happiness is having dinner with friends. The daily activity that detracts most from happiness is commuting. Eat more. Commute less.

Education does begin in the home, not in the schools. In the first weeks of life, there comes a moment when a child hears its mother's voice and knows that it's his mother. At that point, the brain shuts out all other languages and only listens to the mother's language. At that moment, education begins.

It just doesn't pay to be a jerk. Kindness, respect, and all that good stuff — it just goes a long way.

The best way to make people feel that you're listening to them is to listen to them.

I cannot stress enough that the answer to a lot of your life's questions is often in someone else's face. Try to find the most interesting-looking person in the room, the ## person most unlike you, and talk to them.