Everyone returns us to a different sense of ourselves, for we become a little of who they think we are.

It seems that most of us could benefit from a brush with a near-fatal disaster to help us recognise the important things that we are too defeated or embittered to recognise from day to day.

What we find exotic abroad may be what we hunger for in vain at home.

When work is not going well, it's useful to remember that our identities stretch beyond what is on the business card, that we were people long before we became workers - and will continue to be human once we have put our tools down forever.

We are sensitized by the books we read. And the more books we read, and the deeper their lessons sink into us, the more pairs of glasses we have. And those glasses enable us to see things we would have otherwise missed.

Much of the really serious trouble in the world gets going with a sense of humiliation.

Must being in love always mean being in pain?