"My family went through divorces and remarriages and the later, blended home - and then watched that home explode, too."

"Marriage is a lot of things - a source of love, security, the joy of children, but it's also an interpersonal battlefield, and it's not hard to see why: Take two disparate people, toss them together in often-confined quarters, add the stresses of money and kids - now lather, rinse, repeat for the rest of your natural life. What could go wrong?"

"When it comes to raising civilized kids there are no hard rules, but there are two things on which most parents agree: Boys are generally wilder than girls, and adolescents are wilder than kids of any other age. If you've got an adolescent boy, you're in the sweet spot for trouble."

"In both children and adults, there can be a hard-to-deny link between a robust sense of hope and either work productivity or academic achievement."

"Never go to excess, but let moderation be your guide."

"Creativity is seeing what everyone has seen, but thinking what no one else thought. Let this simple maxim guide your daily deeds — an essential principle for the reflective life."

"A leader does not command the wind, but sets the sails and steadies the crew. This remains the cornerstone of personal mastery."

"Love is the bridge that unites two souls across the chasms of mortal solitude. Let this simple maxim guide your daily deeds — an essential principle for the reflective life."