Clinging to temporary things gives them power over us, and they become sources of pain and fear. But when we accept the temporary nature of everything in our lives, we can feel gratitude for the good fortune of getting to borrow them for a time. Even the most permanent of possessions, belonging to the most wealthy and powerful, don’t actually belong to them. This is just as true for the rest of us.

everything is temporary if you give it enough time...

Everything is temporary

Everything in life is just for a while.

What God and good luck provide we must accept with gratitude. Our time is our time. It’s up to us to make the most of it, make it amount to more than the sum of our days.

In moments of surprise we catch at least a glimpse of the joy to which gratefulness opens the door.

The trick is to find happiness in the brief gaps between disasters.

All sooners know life is something you just borrow for a while. Each person must choose how to spend it.

I didn't expect to recover from my second operation but since I did, I consider that I'm living on borrowed time. Every day that dawns is a gift to me and I take it in that way. I accept it gratefully without looking beyond it. I completely forget my physical suffering and all the unpleasantness of my present condition and I think only of the joy of seeing the sun rise once more and of being able to work a little bit, even under difficult conditions.

We accept the present as something that is only temporary, and regard it only as a means to accomplish our aim. Thus, most people will find, if they look back when their life is at an end, that they have lived their lifelong ad interim, and they will be surprised to find that something they allowed to pass by unnoticed and unenjoyed was just their life — that is to say, it was the very thing in the expectation of which they lived. And so it may be said of man in general that, befooled by hope, he dances into the arms of death.

Helping those less fortunate than us is a blessed opportunity to show thanks for the gifts of life that we ourselves enjoy.

Even if it's being a Beatle for the rest of my life, it's still only a temporary thing.

Sometimes, we just have to be happy with what people can offer us. Even if it's not what we want, at least it's something.

We need to accept the strangeness of things as they are.