To cut out every negative root would simultaneously mean choking off positive elements that might arise from it further up the stem of the plant. We ….

Social media has lots of benefits, but compared to Christianity, it tends to group people by interests. Religion puts you with people who have nothin….

Travel agents would be wiser to ask us what we hope to change about our lives rather than simply where we wish to go..

Although I don't believe in God, Bach's music shows me what a love of God must feel like..

At the beginning of human history, as we struggled to light fires and to chisel fallen trees into rudimentary canoes, who could have predicted that l….

It looks like it’s wasting time, but literature is actually the ultimate time-saver - because it gives us access to a range of emotions and events th….

The telephone becomes an instrument of torture in the demonic hands of a beloved who doesn't call..

A great writer picks up on those things that matter. It’s almost like their radar is attuned to the most significant moments..

Philosophy, art, politics, religion and bohemia have never sought to do away entirely with the status hierarchy; they have attemptee, rather, to inst….

We need objects to remind us of the commitments we've made. That carpet from Morocco reminds us of the impulsive, freedom-loving side of ourselves we….

Love is an incurable disease. In love, there is permanent suffering. Those who love and those who are happy are not the same..

Much of the really serious trouble in the world gets going with a sense of humiliation..

We wanted to test each other's capacity for survival: only if we had tried in vain to destroy one another would we know we were safe..

There are people who say, 'Oh this guy is quite thick.' I think the reason is that, increasingly, I don't mind being simple in terms of literary expr….

The company of certain people may excite our generosity and sensitivity, while that of others awakens our competitiveness and envy..

True respectability stems not from the will of the majority but from proper reasoning..

It seems the only way to write a half decent book is to worry oneself sick on an hourly basis that one is producing a complete disaster..

The real issue is not whether baking biscuits is meaningful, but the extent to which the activity can seem to be so after it has been continuously st….

I thought about societies where exceptional fortunes are built up in industries with very little connection to out sincere and significant needs, ind….

Art cannot single-handedly create enthusiasm... it merely contributes to enthusiasm and guides us to be more conscious of feelings that we might prev….

It's very hard to respect people on holiday - everybody looks so silly at the beach, it makes you hate humanity - but when you see people at their wo….