realistic

We do not write as we want but as we can.

If we are to survive on this planet there must be compromises.

There is an illusion that has much to do with ... most of our unhappiness. ... We expect too much.

There is no greater enemy to those who would please than expectation.

The most important thing in marriage is not happiness but stability.

Shall a man go and hang himself because he belongs to the race of pygmies and not be the biggest pygmy that he can?

You can't make the Duchess of Windsor into Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. The facts of life are very stubborn things.

Do not commit the error common among the young of assuming that if you cannot save the whole of mankind you have failed.

Why are we surprised when fig trees bear figs?

I hope to work support my children and die quietly without pain.

Life is a compromise of what your ego wants to do what experience tells you to do and what your nerves let you do.

If I were to wish for anything I should not wish for wealth and power but for the passionate sense of the potential for the eye which ever young and ardent sees the possible ... what wine is so sparkling so fragrant so intoxicating as possibility!

We set up harsh and unkind rules against ourselves. No one is born without faults. That man is best who has fewest.

It is impossible to control creation.

You never conquer a mountain. You stand on the summit a few moments then the wind blows your footprints away.

Every attempt to make war easy and safe will result in humiliation and disaster.

It isn't important to come out on top what matters is to be the one who comes out alive.

Striving for excellence motivates you striving for perfection is demoralizing.