It is this idea 'decency' should be attached to wealth -and 'indecency'' to poverty - that forms the core of one strand of skeptical complaint against the modern status-ideal. Why should failure to make money be taken as a sign of an unconditionally flawed human being rather than of a fiasco in one particular area if the far larger, more multifaceted, project of leading a good life? Why should both wealth and poverty be read as the predominant guides to an individual's morals ?

Paying tax should be framed as a glorious civic duty worthy of gratitude - not a punishment for making money.

If it is true that love is the pursuit in another of qualities we lack in ourselves, then in our love of someone from another culture, one ambition may be to weld ourselves more closely to values missing from our own culture.

We are all more intelligent than we are capable, and awareness of the insanity of love has never saved anyone from the disease.

Journeys are the midwives of thought. Few places are more conducive to internal conversations than moving planes, ships or trains.

One of the best protections against disappointment is to have a lot going on.

An argument in a couple: 2 people attempting to introduce each other to important truths - by panicked shouting.