A Short Guide to a Happy Life Quotes

“Life is made up of moments, small pieces of glittering mica in a long stretch of gray cement. It would be wonderful if they came to us unsummoned, but particularly in lives as busy as the ones most of us lead now, that won’t happen. We have to teach ourselves how to make room for them, to love them, and to live, really live.”
― Anna Quindlen, A Short Guide to a Happy Life

“Don't ever forget the words on a postcard that my father sent me last year: "If you win the rat race, you're still a rat.”
― Anna Quindlen, A Short Guide to a Happy Life

“You cannot be really first-rate at your work if your work is all you are.”
― Anna Quindlen, A Short Guide to a Happy Life

“All of us want to do well. But if we do not do good, too, then doing well will never be enough.”
― Anna Quindlen, A Short Guide to a Happy Life

“It's so much easier to write a resume than to craft a spirit.”
― Anna Quindlen, A Short Guide to a Happy Life

“But he told me that most of the time he stayed on the boardwalk, facing the water, just the way we were sitting now even when it got cold and he had to wear his newspapers after he read them.

And I asked him why. Why didn't he go to one of the shelters? Why didn't he check himself into the hospital for detox? And he just stared out at the ocean and said, "Look at the view, young lady. Look at the view.”
― Anna Quindlen, A Short Guide to a Happy Life

“But you are the only person alive who has sole custody of your life.”
― Anna Quindlen, A Short Guide to a Happy Life

“Get a life in which you are not alone. Find people you love, and who love you. And remember that love is not leisure, it is work. Each time I look at my diploma, I remember that I am still a student, still learning every day how to be human.”
― Anna Quindlen, A Short Guide to a Happy Life

“I learned to love the journey, not the destination. I learned that this is not a dress rehearsal, and that today is the only guarantee you get.”
― Anna Quindlen, A Short Guide to a Happy Life

“Don't ever forget what a friend once wrote to Senator Paul Tsongas when the senator had decided not to run for reelection because he'd been diagnosed with cancer: “No man ever said on his deathbed I wish I had spent more time at the office.”
― Anna Quindlen, A Short Guide to a Happy Life

“If you win the rat race, you’re still a rat.”
― Anna Quindlen, A Short Guide to a Happy Life

“Life is short. Remember that, too.”
― Anna Quindlen, A Short Guide to a Happy Life

“Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.”
― Anna Quindlen, A Short Guide to a Happy Life

“Yogi Berra's advice seems as good as any: When you come to a fork in the road, take it! (p4)”
― Anna Quindlen, A Short Guide to a Happy Life

“After all, when you look at the faces of a class of graduating seniors, you realize that each student has only one thing that no one else has.

When you leave college, there are thousands of people out there with the same degree you have; when you get a job, there will be thousands of people doing what you want to do for a living.

But you are the only person alive who has sole custody of your life.

Your particular life. Your entire life.

Not just your life at a desk, or your life on the bus, or in the car, or at the computer.

Not just the life of your mind, but the life of your heart.

Not just your bank account, but your soul.”
― Anna Quindlen, A Short Guide to a Happy Life

“So I suppose the best piece of advice I could give anyone is pretty simple: get a life.

A real life, not a manic pursuit of the next promotion, the bigger paycheck, the larger house.

Do you think you'd care so very much about those things if you developed an aneurysm one afternoon, or found a lump in your breast while in the shower? (p16)”
― Anna Quindlen, A Short Guide to a Happy Life

“No man ever said on his deathbed I wish I had spent more time at the office.”
― Anna Quindlen, A Short Guide to a Happy Life