Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.

Your work is to discover your work and then, with all your heart, to give yourself to it.

As a citizen, you have a choice between two different paths.

One path is easy. When you turn on the TV or open the newspaper and hear about all the trouble in the world you could walk away from the stories about Iraq or poverty or violence or joblessness or hopelessness.

Just turn it off and tune out. That would be the easiest thing in the world to do. There will be pundits and politicians who will tell you that it’s someone else’s fault and someone else’s problem to fix.

I am not one of them.

There is a second path. This one is more difficult. It asks more of you. It asks you to not just pursue your own individual dreams, but to help perfect our collective dream as a nation. It asks you to realize there is more to life than being rich, thin, young, famous, safe, and entertained. It asks you to recognize that there are people out there who need you.

Every moment of our life is important.

Being human is a precious situation, and we shouldn't waste time in useless activities.

It is said that if our intention is to help others--even if we are unable to follow it through--we will never have any regret. Regret is a result of trying to make "me" happy.