What should worry us is not the number of people that oppose us, but how good their reasons are for doing so.

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

Feeling lost, crazy and desperate belongs to a good life as much as optimism, certainty and reason.

There is a longing for a return to a time without the need for choices, free of the regret at the inevitable loss that all choice (however wonderful) has entailed.

It's as though either you accept [religious] doctrine and then you can have all the nice stuff, or you reject the doctrine and you're living in some kind of spiritual wasteland under the guidance of CNN and Walmart.

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

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