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

Intimacy is the capacity to be rather weird with someone - and finding that that's ok with them..

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

Every fall into love involves the triumph of hope over self-knowledge. We fall in love hoping we won't find in another what we know is in ourselves, ….

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

It would be foolish to describe the logistics hub as merely ugly, for it has the horrifying, soulless, immaculate beauty characteristic of many of th….

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..

I learnt to stop fantasising about the perfect job or the perfect relationship because that can actually be an excuse for not living..

Art holds out the promise of inner wholeness..

For paranoia about 'what other people think' : remember that only some hate, a very few love - and almost all just don't care..

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….

These inventors were elevating the formulation of entrepreneurial ideas to the status of a visionary activity. Though forced to justify their efforts….

Being content is perhaps no less easy than playing the violin well: and requires no less practice..

Instead of bringing back 1600 plants, we might return from our journeys with a collection of small unfêted but life-enhancing thoughts..

In the oasis complex, the thirsty man images he sees water, palm trees, and shade not because he has evidence for the belief, but because he has a ne….

Happiness is impossible for longer than 15 minutes. We are the descendants of creatures who, above all else, worried..

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….

A simple problem of arithmetic: there are far more ambitions than there are grand destinies available..

People who hold important positions in society are commonly labelled "somebodies," and their inverse "nobodies"-both of which are, of course, nonsens….

It's hard loving those who don't much like themselves: "If you're so great, why would you think I'm so great..

Memory is... similar to anticipation: an instrument of simplification and selection..