Stephen Sondheim Quotes

If you were wise enough to know that this life would consist mostly of letting go of things you wanted, then why not get good at the letting go, rather than the trying to have?

If it is, it is, If it's not, it's not.

The joy of losing consists in this: Where there are no expectations, there is no disappointment.

This is going to be a hard task for you, first to attain and then to lose - because you can lose only something which you possess. If you don't possess it, how can you lose it?

Because I do not hope to turn again Because I do not hope Because I do not hope to turn Desiring this man's gift and that man's scope I no longer strive to strive towards such things (Why should the aged eagle stretch its wings?) Why should I mourn The vanished power of the usual reign?

The mind which renounces, once and for ever, a futile hope, has its compensation in ever-growing calm.

To renounce things is not to give them up. It is to acknowledge that all things go away.

Never say about anything, "I have lost it," but only "I have given it back." Is your child dead? It has been given back. Is your wife dead? She has been returned.

Give up all hope, all illusion, all desire..I've tried. I've tried and still I desire, I still desire not to desire and hope to be without hope and have the illusion I can be without illusions..Give up, I say. Give up everything, including the desire to be saved.

I have often observed that resignation is never so perfect as when the blessing denied begins to lose somewhat of its value in our eyes.

Put personal ambition away from you, and then you will find consolation in living or in dying, whatever may happen to you.

I still smile it's not worth the trouble any more for a long time now it's not been worth the trouble the tongue spring goes into the mud I stay like this not thirsty any more the tongue goes back into the mouth it closes it has to make a straight line now it's done I've made the image.

When we have done our best, we should wait the result in peace.

I can't be smug, because I know that you can lose anything at any point. And I can't be angry, because I haven't lost it.

I've had no contact with my daughter for years. That's her choice. Anyway, you move on. If people don't want to bother with me, fine. You know, God bless them, and move on.

Never in any case say I have lost such a thing, but I have returned it. Is your child dead? It is a return. Is your wife dead? It is a return. Are you deprived of your estate? Is not this also a return?

Lower your expectations of earth. This isn't heaven, so don't expect it to be.

The surest way to get a thing in this life is to be prepared for doing without it, to the exclusion even of hope.

It was my dream that I had clenched in a fist of discontent and wouldn't release. But time had now pried every finger open. There is peace in an open and upraised hand that isn't grasping for anything.

Since we cannot get what we like, let us like what we can get.

The longer I live, the more I feel that true repose consists in 'renouncing' one's own self, by which I mean making up one's mind to admit that there is no importance whatever in being 'happy' or 'unhappy' in the usual meaning of the words.

I made up my mind that I would hold onto nothing, that I would expect nothing.

Things pass, and the best we can do is to let them really go away

I say good-bye to hope, but I also say good-bye to hope's disappointment.

Even as I hold you, I am letting you go.