The lesson? To respond to the unexpected and hurtful behavior of others with something more than a wipe of the glasses, to see it as a chance to expand our understanding.

What kills us isn't one big thing, but thousands of tiny obligations we can't turn down for fear of disappointing others.

Intuition is unconscious accumulated experience informing judgement in real time.

You have to be quite heavily invested in someone to do them the honour of telling them you're annoyed with them.

There's a whole category of people who miss out by not allowing themselves to be weird enough.

It is perhaps sad books that best console us when we are sad, and to lonely service stations that we should drive when there is no one for us to hold or love.

Let's say you went to Harvard or Oxford or Cambridge, and you said, 'I've come here because I'm in search of morality, guidance and consolation; I want to know how to live,' - they would show you the way to the insane asylum.