197 Quotes by Katherine Center

Getting what you want doesn’t make you happy... Having doesn’t make you happy: appreciating does; Happiness is more about appreciation than acquisition.

You know what?” my dad said, reading us perfectly, “I think our girl needs some rest.” He’d been with my mom for thirty years. He was an expert on damage control.

You can’t just wish strength for yourself. Or wisdom. Or resilience. Those things have to be earned.

It takes guts to walk into a burning building or staunch an arterial bleed – no question. But it also takes a special kind of brain. Firefighters think differently from other people, and this is especially true of me. Because when everybody else is panicking, when the entire whole world is freaking the heck out – that’s when I get calm.

I wondered if stating a preference to the universe just dared it to mess with me.

John Gottman is a researcher who looks at what marriages need to thrive, and one of the many things he talks about is creating a “culture of appreciation” in a relationship – where partners focus on and savor the things about each other that they love.

The lived on the mistaken assumption that their lives mattered, that life was essentially fair, that it was all going to wind up happy in the end. I knew what they didn’t – that everything you care about will disappear, that deserving a happy life doesn’t mean you can get one, and that there really is no one in the entire world you can count on but yourself.

I have a theory that we are at our meanest when we feel threatened.

I would never tell you that the life you wanted couldn’t have been exactly as great as you planned. But you have to live the life you have. You have to find inspiration in the struggle, and pull joy out of the hardship. That’s what we try to do – counterbalance the suffering with laughter, fuzzy blankets, hugs, sing-alongs, sunny-day picnics, chocolate chip cookies, and wildflowers. Because that’s all we can do: carry the sorrow when we have to, and absolutely savor the joy when we can.