One of love's greatest drawbacks is that, for a while at least, it is in danger of making us happy.

What we seek, at the deepest level, is inwardly to resemble, rather than physically to possess, the objects and places that touch us through their beauty.

I went to church and couldn't swallow it. The music was nice but I don't belong there.

to design means forcing ourselves to unlearn what we believe we already know, patiently to take apart the mechanisms behind our reflexes and to acknowledge the mystery and stupefying complexity of everyday gestures like switching off a light of turning on a tap

As victims of hurt, we frequently don't bring up what ails us, because so many wounds look absurd in the light of day.

The more dignity is widely and freely available in a society, the less people want to be famous.

According to Montaigne, it was the oppressive notion that we had complete mental control over our bodies, and the horror of departing from this portrait of normality, that had left the man unable to perform sexually.