George Vaillant Quotes

If you want to treat an illness that has no easy cure, first of all, treat them with hope.

Creativity can never be explained by appeal to reason alone. Like the birth of a child, creativity compels us not to explanation but to wonder and awe.

The recent years of the Grant Study have shown that our lives when we are old are the sum of all of our loves.

The seventy-five years and twenty million dollars expended on the Grant Study points to a straightforward five-word conclusion: Happiness is love. Full stop.

Happiness is only the cart; love is the horse

Life ain't easy. Terrible things happen to everyone. You have to keep your sense of humor, give something of yourself to others, make friends who are younger than you, learn new things, and have fun.

Whether we live to a vigorous old age lies not so much in our stars or in our genes but in ourselves.

Aging happy and well, instead of sad and sick, is at least under some personal control. We have considerable control over our weight, our exercise, our education, and our abuse of cigarettes and alcohol. With hard work and/or therapy, our relationships with our spouses and our coping styles can be changed for the better. A successful old age may lie not so much in our stars and genes as in ourselves.

Our lives are like the talents in the parable of the three stewards. It is something that has been given to us for the time being and we have the opportunity and privilege of doing our best with this precious gift.

Anxiety and depression are the price you pay for a well-lived life.

Joy is connection ... The more areas in your life you can make connection, the better,

It is not stress that kills us. It is effective adaptation to stress that allows us to live.

We can laugh from either joy or happiness, but we weep only from grief or joy ... Without the pain of farewell, there is no joy in reunion ... without the pain of captivity, we don't experience the joy of freedom.