23 Quotes by Heather Havrilesky

And maybe when he died, he didn’t think, “Is this all I get?” the way we, the narrow-minded living, might imagine, in the face of such a premature death. Maybe he thought, “I lived a rich life. I embraced what I was given, and it was incredible.

The past is reduced to a slide show. The future is a YouTube video that won’t load.

It takes hard work to say, “This is how I am,” in a calm voice, without anxiously addressing how you should be.

The question isn’t whether or not your stuff sparks joy. The question is: Can you spark joy all by yourself?

Rather than a tale of greed, the history of luxury could more accurately be read as a record of emotional trauma,” writes Alain de Botton in his book Status Anxiety, efficiently summing up Draper, Grey, and Trump in one blow. “It is the legacy of those who have felt pressured by the disdain of others to add an extraordinary amount to their bare selves in order to signal that they too may lay a claim to love.