This is JamesGeary.com

Never be serious in public.

Open your hands and you open your heart.

You can never look in the same mirror twice.

Sometimes, two goldfish in a bowl are enough.

You can’t warm yourself at a distant fire.

Too many facts spoil the plot.

The serenity that often comes with age consists primarily of the realization that we can’t do much about anything anyway.

To see clearly, one must very often squint.

You can’t expect a change of scenery if you never veer from the beaten track.

Familiarity breeds complacency not contempt.

An animal must feel at least temporarily safe in order to really enjoy a meal.

In a crisis, inspiration is better than consolation.

Use sharpens a dull axe.

Eating is good because it gives you something to do. If you think too much, just order pizza.

Not many people live in the desert.

After a certain age, we are granted a new way of telling time: counting the people we know who have died.

Big things are accomplished by accomplishing little things first.

There’s never nothing left to learn.

People tend to salute anything unnaturally bright, at least until the shade from their hands reveals what it really is.

Our mistakes make us interesting.

It’s getting dark. Let’s celebrate.

The long, lonely walk back to the drawing board concentrates the mind wonderfully.

A smile looks a lot like a wince.

Rehearse the minor hurts enough and the major ones don’t hurt.

It is easy to get lost in the moment, and then to mistake that moment for eternity.

There is not much room for error in an eggshell.

You must understand a thing completely before you can safely ignore it.

I would rather be a voice in the desert than a face in the crowd.

The dark side retains its power by imposing a blackout.

What inures is ignored.

There are certain mistakes we enjoy so much that we are always willing to repeat them.

Even what is nearest, most prolific, is invisible unless properly lit.

Why I like juggling: The illusion of flight, deft mastery of falling’s art; because to have what you hold you have to throw it away as soon as it’s caught.

Don’t celebrate when you finish something. Completion is just the first stage of collapse.

Sometimes, you need a door slammed in your face before you can hear opportunity knock.

At night, after the children have gone to sleep, we can hide their presents all over the house.

It’s hard to think clearly in someone’s arms.

Following in other people’s footsteps is fine, as long as you are big enough to fill their shoes.

Trying to consciously control your thoughts is like trying to install a faucet on Niagara Falls.

If you are in danger then you are really alive, like a nun’s orgasm.

When in doubt, remain in doubt.

The art of writing is the art of knowing what to leave out.

You only really discover the strength of your spine when your back is against the wall.

To get your foot in the door, first get it out of your mouth.

Never trust an animal — no matter how many legs it has.

An infant’s smile is the universe’s seal of approval.

What we do while doing nothing cannot be done in haste.

A thread’s only strength is clinging.

All thinking is wishful thinking.

Burn your ships at night and in the morning build bridges.

Cultivate a certain distance from yourself, as one tends to avoid radiation.

“I am nothing,” the Buddha said. “I really do not exist. I am an open window. I am a bus stop.”

Advice is given freely because so much of it is worthless.

Young people should picnic in active volcanoes.

Imagine their embarrassment when all the members of the orchestra arrived at the performance wearing the same outfit.

Laughter blows away the dust from our eyes.

Life: adjusting a necktie in a funhouse mirror.

X + Y = You

The Earth does not regret its orbit.

Tears always appear at the extremes, greasing the joints between pleasure and pain.

Prepare for spontaneity — now.

Money is poor compensation for all the time we lose in making it.

You never know what you can do until you are tried.

There is always time between beginnings to do the whole thing over again.

In the margin for error lies all our room for maneuver.

Who notices their feet unless there is a stone in their shoe?