Quotes from Frank Bruni

Campaigns waged with lies presage governments racked by distrust. The sclerosis starts there.

Dried pasta from a box didn't advertise how long and hard you had labored.

One was the repurposing of trauma or upset as a badge of honor, the turning of the statement "I can't believe what I'm going through" from a complaint to a boast, from "I can't believe what I'm being put through" to "I can't believe what I'm managing to get through.

If you maintain a robust agenda of activities, if you nurture a rich network of relationships, if you intellectually challenge yourself, if you pay attention to your diet, if you exercise regularly and vigorously, if you latch on to a sense of purpose—all of this will probably enhance your cognitive fitness, your mental

Why me?" There's a better question, of course: "Why not me?" Why should any of us be spared struggle, when struggle is a condition more universal than comfort

For all our claims and gestures of dominion over this earth, all our gravity-defying explorations beyond it, all our artistic triumphs, all our athletic feats, we are a breakable species

But if I'd been so fortunate as to have a God-given talent like yours, I wouldn't have wasted it." Mom wasn't particularly religious, but when laying on a guilt trip, she liked to bring along backup, and she figured God was the only disapproving authority as fearsome as she.

contentment has to do with what we accept, what we expect and what we measure our current situations against.

what determined people's happiness wasn't their physical conditions or capabilities but what they paid attention to, what they emphasized, what they accomplished within the possibilities available to them.

The challenge of life, present for most of it but more dominant in the second half, is adjusting to loss or, more specifically, developing the judgment and grace not only to accept its inevitability but also to recognize that it's not the only trajectory, that there are many ways to meet and measure it and that there are consolations, including all that remains. Cherishing those leftovers—those holdovers—is the key to thriving, and sometimes even to surviving.

That was the story of college: one obsession after another; an advance followed by a retreat; a breakthrough dissolving into a setback. It was a reprise of the years preceding it and an omen of the years to come.It It could be broken down into the forces and schemes that propelled me

Her excitement was so enormous, it didn't leave room for darker emotions.

Even in the later innings of our lives, we have unplumbed abilities, untaxed muscles, flexibility, growth.

The inclination to consider UPenn, not attendance at UPenn, is the key to future earnings.

He communicates authenticity to an electorate ravenous for it.

Sometimes a limit or a loss is, as I mentioned in an earlier chapter, a gateway to experiments that you wouldn't have sought, skills that you wouldn't have acquired, insights that you wouldn't have gleaned. You just have to allow for that prospect and finesse that perspective.

I suppose there are people who can pass up free guacamole, but they're either allergic to avocado or too joyless to live.

My fear is that these kids are always going to be evaluating their self-worth in terms of whether they hit the next rung society has placed in front of them at exactly the time that society has placed it. And that's dangerous, because you're going to slip and fall in your life.

College is a singular opportunity to rummage through and luxuriate in ideas, to give your brain a vigorous workout and your soul a thorough investigation, to realize how very large the world is and to contemplate your desired place in it.

There was nothing like a martini to blunt the day and polish the night.

Although the Internet could be making all of us smarter, it makes many of us stupider, because it's not just a magnet for the curious. It's a sinkhole for the gullible. It renders everyone an instant expert. You have a degree? Well, I did a Google search!

People who flourish make a decision to flourish. They point themselves toward joy.

Imagine that our hardships, our hurdles, our demons, our pain were spelled out for everyone around us to see. Imagine that each of us donned a sandwich board that itemized them.

Books are personal, passionate. They stir emotions and spark thought in a manner all their own, and I'm convinced that the shattered world has less hope for repair if reading becomes an ever smaller part of it.