We often lose our tempers not with those who are actually to blame; just with those who love us enough to forgive us our foul moods..

Why, then, if expensive things cannot bring us remarkable joy, are we so powerfully drawn to them?.

Anyone who isn't embarrassed of who they were last year probably isn't learning enough..

The best cure for one's bad tendencies is to see them in action in another person..

The only people we can think of as normal are those we don't yet know very well..

At the heart of every frustration lies a basic structure: the collision of a wish with an unyielding reality..

We may not agree with what religions are trying to teach us, but we can admire the institutional way in which they're doing it..

The true nature of bureaucracy may be nowhere more obvious to the observer than in a developing country, for only there will it still be made manifes….

The pre-scientific age, whatever its deficiencies, had at least offered its members the peace of mind that follows from knowing all man-made achievem….

Work finally begins when the fear of doing nothing exceeds the fear of doing it badly..

If one felt successful, there'd be so little incentive to be successful..

The desire for high status is never stronger than in situations where "ordinary" life fails to answer a median need for dignity and comfort..

Symons remarked that the most common and unhelpful illusion plaguing those who came to see him was the idea that they ought somehow, in the normal co….

Most of us stand poised at the edge of brilliance, haunted by the knowledge of our proximity, yet still demonstrably on the wrong side of the line, o….

Most of our childhood is stored not in photos, but in certain biscuits, lights of day, smells, textures of carpet..

Status anxiety definitely exists at a political level. Many Iraqis were annoyed with the US essentially for reasons of status: for not showing them r….

In the works of Lucretius, we find two reasons why we shouldn't worry about death. If you have had a successful life, Lucretius tell us, there's no r….

Booksellers are the most valuable destination for the lonely, given the numbers of books that were written because authors couldn't find anyone to ta….

What is fascinating about marriage is why anyone wants to get married..

A lump rises in our throat at the sight of beauty from an implicit knowledge that the happiness it hints at is the exception..

Maturity: knowing where you're crazy, trying to warn others of the fact and striving to keep yourself under control..