How come pleasure never makes it on to... a dutiful list of do's and don'ts? Doesn't joy also get soft and flabby if you neglect to exercise it?

- Ellen Goodman

We criticize mothers for closeness. We criticize fathers for distance. How many of us have expected less from our fathers and appreciated what they g…

- Ellen Goodman

This packrat has learned that what the next generation will value most is not what we owned, but the evidence of who we were and the tales of how we …

- Ellen Goodman

There's a trick to the Graceful Exit. It begins with the vision to recognize when a job, a life stage, a relationship is over - and to let go. It mea…

- Ellen Goodman

We are told that people stay in love because of chemistry, or because they remain intrigued with each other, because of many kindnesses, because of l…

- Ellen Goodman

Maybe this year, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives not looking for flaws, but looking for potential.

- Ellen Goodman

Today, much of journalism and politics are in a kind of collusion to oversimplify and personalize issues. No room for ambivalence. Plenty of room for…

- Ellen Goodman

The central struggle of parenthood is to let our hopes for our children outweigh our fears.

- Ellen Goodman

Our 'mistakes' become our crucial parts, sometimes our best parts, of the lives we have made.

- Ellen Goodman