We should keep a careful diary of our moments of envy: they are our covert guides to what we should try to do next.

Not being understood may be taken as a sign that there is much in one to understand.

The largest part of what we call 'personality' is determined by how we've opted to defend ourselves against anxiety and sadness".

Differ though we might with Christianity's view of what precisely our souls need, it is hard to discredit the provocative underlying thesis, which seems no less relevant in the secular realm than in the religious one-that we have within us a precious, childlike, vulnerable core which we should nourish and nurture on its turbulent journey through life.

The problem isn't so much finding good ideas (there is no shortage) as embedding the ones we have into everyday practice.

I am conscious of trying to stretch the boundaries of non-fiction writing. It's always surprised me how little attention many non-fiction writers pay to the formal aspects of their work.

Bad architecture is in the end as much a failure of psychology as of design. It is an example expressed through materials of the same tendencies which in other domains will lead us to marry the wrong people, choose inappropriate jobs and book unsuccessful holidays: the tendency not to understand who we are and what will satisfy us.