The closer you look at something, the more complex it seems to be

--- Vint Cerf, in What I've Learned: Vint Cerf by Cal Fussman, Esquire April 24, 2008

You must set out to enjoy it

--- H.M. Queen Elizabeth II, on how she maintains her enthusiasm for the endless round of tedious public engagements.

Reported by Jeremy Paxman in On Royalty, Penguin 2006, p. 228, citing Rev. Charlie Wilson “a Church of Scotland minister who considers the queen a good friend, [who] says he one asked her how she maintained her enthusiasm.” This is what she told him.

Avoid adjectives of scale, you will love the world more and desire it less

--- Former poet laureate Robert Hass paraphrasing Basho, cited by Howard Norman in "On the Trail of a Ghost", National Geographic Magazine Feb 2008, p. 143