I am convinced that most people do not grow up...We marry and dare to have children and call that growing up. I think what we do is mostly grow old. We carry accumulation of years in our bodies, and on our faces, but generally our real selves, the children inside, are innocent and shy as magnolias.

"I have always, essentially, been waiting. Waiting to become something else, waiting to be that person I always thought I was on the verge of becoming, waiting for that life I thought I would have. In my head, I was always one step away. In high school, I was biding my time until I could become the college version of myself, the one my mind could see so clearly. In college, the post-college "adult" person was always looming in front of me, smarter, stronger, more organized. Then the married person, then the person I'd become when we have kids. For twenty years, literally, I have waited to become the thin version of myself, because that's when life will really begin.

One swing set, well worn but structurally sound, seeks new home. Make memories with your kid or kids so that someday he or she or they will look into the backyard and feel the ache of sentimentality as desperately as I did this afternoon. It's all fragile and fleeting, dear reader, but with this swing set, your child(ren) will be introduced to the ups and downs of human life gently and safely, and may also learn the most important lesson of all: No matter how hard you kick, no matter how high you get, you can't go all the way around.

"You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in your joints and very shabby.

But what is the sense in forever speculating what might have happened had such and such a moment turned out differently? One could presumably drive oneself to distraction in this way. In any case, while it is all very well to talk of 'turning points', one can surely only recognize such moments in retrospect. Naturally, when one looks back to such instances today, they may indeed take the appearance of being crucial, precious moments in one's life; but of course, at the time, this was not the impression one had. Rather, it was as though one had available a never-ending number of days, months, years in which to sort out the vagaries of one's relationship with Miss Kenton; an infinite number of further opportunities in which to remedy the effect of this or that misunderstanding. There was surely nothing to indicate at the time that such evidently small incidents would render whole dreams forever irredeemable.

We need to help people to discover the true meaning of love. Love is generally confused with dependence. Those of us who have grown in true love know that we can love only in proportion to our capacity for independence.

When two people meet and fall in love, there's a sudden rush of magic. Magic is just naturally present then. We tend to feed on that gratuitous magic without striving to make any more. One day we wake up and find that the magic is gone. We hustle to get it back, but by then it's usually too late, we've used it up. What we have to do is work like hell at making additional magic right from the start. It's hard work, but if we can remember to do it, we greatly improve our chances of making love stay.

What you are is a fucking tragedy, Simon Snow. You literally couldn't be a bigger mess.

The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because generally they are the same people.

Pride slays thanksgiving but a humble mind is the soil out of which thanks naturally grow. A proud man is seldom a grateful man for he never thinks he gets as much as he deserves.

I'm not going to put out a Christmas CD until it's coming out of me naturally.

I'm Jewish and my wife isn't so right now we're literally decorating a Christmas tree with Jewish stars draped around it.

My fondest memories are generally the day after Thanksgiving. I get the total decorating Christmas itch.

Generally a chef's book is like a calling card or a portfolio to display their personal work.

Slaves are generally expected to sing as well as to work.

Although it has been said by men of more wit than wisdom and perhaps more malice than either that women are naturally incapable of acting prudently or that they are necessarily determined to folly I must by no means grant it.

Earthly wisdom is doing what comes naturally. Godly wisdom is doing what the Holy Spirit compels us to do.

Most of our pocket wisdom is conceived for the use of mediocre people to discourage them from ambitious attempts and generally console them in their mediocrity.

Wise kings generally have wise counselors and he must be a wise man himself who is capable of distinguishing one.

The day of the wedding went like these things generally do full of anxious moments interspersed with black comedy.

'That's What She Said' is not Hollywood's standard picture of women: preternaturally gorgeous wedding obsessed boy crazy fashion focused sexed up 'girl' women. These are real women comically portrayed who are trying to wrestle with the very expectations of womanhood that Hollywood movies set up.

It was only literally hours after the wedding when he felt he didn't have to keep up the facade.

Telling the truth to people who misunderstand you is generally promoting a falsehood isn't it?

The defendant wants to hide the truth because he's generally guilty. The defense attorney's job is to make sure the jury does not arrive at that truth.