指揮街71號

- I always thought we only had two choices in our lives when it came to pizza crust- thin and crispy, or thick and doughy. How was I to have known there could be a crust in this world that was thin and doughy? Holy of holies! Thin, doughy, strong, gummy, yummy, chewy, salty pizza paradise. On top, there is a sweet tomato sauce that foams up all bubbly and creamy when it melts the fresh buffalo mozzarella, and the one sprig of basil in the middle of the whole deal somehow infuses the entire pizza with herbal radiance, much the same way one shimmering movie star in the middle of a party brings a contact high of glamour to everyone around her.  --- Pizzeria Da Michele @ Naples, Italy

- Every city has a single word that defines it, that identifies most people who live there. If you could read people's thoughts as they were passing you on the streets of any given place, you would discover that most of them are thinking the same thought. Whatever that majority thought might be-- that is the word of the city. And if your personal word does not match the word of the city, then you don't really belong there.

- In any reference to George Bush, people only nod to Berlusconi, saying " We understand how it is--- we have one, too."

- The Yogis, however, say that human discontentment is a simple case of mistaken identity. We're miserable because we think that we are mere individuals, alone with our fears and flaws and resentments and mortality. We wrongly believe that our limited little ego constitute our whole entire nature. We have failed to recognize our deeper divine character. We don't realize that, somewhere within us all, there does exist a supreme Self who is eternally at peace. That supreme Self is our true identity, universal and divine. Before you realize this truth, say that Yogis, you will always be in despair, a notion nicely expressed in this exasperated line from the Greek stoic philosopher Epictetus: " You bear God within you, poor wretch, and you it not."

- You are , after all, what you think. Your emotions are the slaves to your thoughts, and you are the slave to your emotions.

- People think a soul mate is your perfect fit, and that's what everyone wants. But a true soul mate is a mirror, the person who  brings you to your own attention so you can change your life. A true soul mate is probably the most important person you'll ever meet, because they tear down your walls and smack you awake. But to live with a soul mate forever? Nah. Too painful. Soul mates, they come into your life just to reveal another layer of yourself to you, and then they leave.

- Life, if you keep chasing it so hard, will drive you to death. Time--- when pursued like a bandit-- will behave like one; always remaining one county or one room ahead of you, changing its name and hair color to elude you, slipping out the back door o the motel just as you're banging through the lobby with your newest search warrant, leaving only a burning cigarette in the ashtray to taunt you. At some point you have to stop because it won't. You have to admit that you can't catch it. That you're not supposed to catch it. At some point, you gotta let go and sit still and allow contentment to come to you.

- Letting go, of course, is a scary enterprise for those of us who believe that the world revolves only because it has a handle on the top of it which we personally turn, and that if we were to drop this handle for even a moment, well-- that would be the end of the universe. But try dropping it. This is the message I'm getting. Sit quiet for now and cease your relentless participation. Watch what happens. The birds do not crash dead out of the sky in mid-flight, after all. The trees do not wither and die, the rivers do not run red with blood.Life continues to go on. Even the Italian post office will keep limping along, doing its own thing without you--- why are you so sure that your micromanagement of every moment in this whole world is so essential? Why don't you let it be?

- There are only two questions that human beings have ever fought over, all through history. How much do you love? And Who's in charge? Everything elese is somehow manageable. But these two questions of love and control undo us all, trip us up and cause war, grief and suffering. 

- If faith were rational, it wouldn't be- by definition- faith. Fait is a belief in what you cannot see or prove or touch. Faith is walking face-first  and full-speed into the dark. If we truly knew all the answers in advance as to the meaning of life and the nature of God and the destinty of our souls, our belief would not be a leap of faith and it would not be a courageous act of humanity; it would just be ... a prudent insrance policy.

- Destinty , I feel, is also a relationship - a play between divine grace and willful self-effort. Half of it you have no control over; half of it is absolutely in your hands, and your actions will show measurable consequence. Men is neither entirely a puppet of the gods, nor is he entirely the captain of his own destiny; he's a little of both. We gallop through our lives like circus performers balancing on two speeding side-by-side horses- one foot is on the horse called " fate", the other on the horse called "free will".  And the question you have to ask every day is --- which horse is which? Which horse do i Need to stop worrying about because it's not under my control, and which do I need to steer with concentrated effort?

- You need to learn how to select your thoughts just the same way you select what clothes you're gonna wear everyday. This is a power you can cultivate. If you want to control things in your life so bad, work on the mind. That's the only thing you should be trying to control. Drop everything elese but that. Because if you can't learn to master your thinking, you're in deep trouble forever. 

- Universe is a great spinning engine. You want to stay near the core of the thing- right in the hub of the wheel- not out at the edges where all wild whirling takes place, where you can be frayed and crazy. The hub of calmness- that's your heart. That's where God lives within you. So stop looking for answers in the world. Just keep coming back to that center and you'll always find peace.

- Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it. You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings. And once you have achieved a state of happiness, you must never become lax about maintaining it, you must make a mighty effort to keep swimming upward into that happiness forever, to stay afloat on top of it. If you don't, you will leak away your innate contentment.

- Generally speaking, though, Americans have an inability to relax into sheer pleasure. Ours is an entertainment-seeking nation, but not necessarily a pleasure-seeking one. Americans spend billions to keep themselves amused with everything from porn to theme parks to wars, but that's not exactly the same thing as quiet enjoyment. Americans work harder and longer and more stressful hours than anyone in the world today. But as Luca Spagetti pointed out, we seem to like it. Alarming statistics back this observation up, showing that many Americans feel more happy and fulfilled in their offices than they do in their own homes. Of course, we all inevitably work too hard, then we get burned out and have to spend the whole weekend in our pajamas, eating cereal straight out of the box and staring at the TV in a mild coma ( which is the opposite of working ,yes, but not exactly the same thing as pleasure). Americans don't really know to do nothing. This is the cause of that great sad American stereotype-- the overstressed executive who goes on vacation, but who cannot relax.

- Bel far niente means " the beauty of doing nothing" . The beauty of doing nothing is the goal of all your work, the final accomplishment for which you are most highly congratulated. The more exquisitely and delighfully you can do nothing, the higher your life's achievement. You don't necessarily need to be rich in order to experience this, either. There's another wonderful Italian expression: l'arte d'arrangiarsi- the art of making something out of nothing. The art of turning a few simple ingredients info a feast, or a few gathered friends into a festival. Anyone with a talent for happiness can do this, not only  the rich.