The pleasure we derive from journeys is perhaps dependent more on the mindset with which we travel than on the destination we travel to.

The secular world is full of holes. We have secularized badly.

Those who divorce aren't necessarily the most unhappy, just those neatly able to believe their misery is caused by one other person.

Bitterness: anger that forgot where it came from.

The only possible way to begin a book is to tell oneself that its eventual failure is guaranteed — but survivable.

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

Status Anxiety: A worry, so pernicious as to be capable of ruining extended stretches of our lives, that we are in danger of failing to conform to the ideals of success laid down by our society and that we may as a result be stripped of dignity and respect; a worry that we are currently occupying too modest a rung or are about to fall to a lower one.