700 Quotes by Dennis Prager

If you want financial success, you need the self-control to waste little time on fun things that don’t contribute to your personal and professional development. If you want happy and healthy children, you need the self-control to spend a great deal of time with them (thus depriving yourself of time to do what you want to do for yourself). If you want to be physically fit, you need the self-control to eat less fattening, less delicious foods and to exercise regularly.

Everything that leads to happiness involves pain.

… Many people avoid some of the very things that would bring them the deepest happiness such as marriage, children, intellectually challenging pursuits, religious commitment, and volunteer work. They fear the pain that inevitably accompanies such things and therefore devote more time to ‘fun’ things that bring little happiness, such as watching television.

As the Psalmist put it millennia ago, ‘Those who sow in tears will reap in joy.’ Many people, however, believe that they can both sow and reap without tears.

… given my view that tragedy is normal, I try to be happy unless something happens that makes me unhappy, rather than unhappy unless something makes me happy. Most people go through life waiting for something wonderful to happen to make them happy. My attitude is so long as nothing terrible is happening to us, we ought to be happy.

If there's a violent mob on campus, it isn't Ben Shapiro's fault - he's just someone coming to campus to talk about ideas. Mob violence is the mob's fault

Whatever one does for a living, three questions need to be confronted before it is too late: What really matters to me? What price do my spouse and kids pay for my career success? What price does my soul pay?

While shared values aren’t sufficient for friendship, friendship is impossible without shared values. In fact, one reason people are hurt by those they had considered friends is that friends are too often chosen without attention to their values.

I have a simple rule that is of great value in identifying whom to trust: Do not choose friends on the basis of personality, ‘chemistry,’ or enjoyment alone. Know their character (i.e. their values and whether they act on those values) before you trust them.