Differ though we might with Christianity's view of what precisely our souls need, it is hard to discredit the provocative underlying thesis, which seems no less relevant in the secular realm than in the religious one-that we have within us a precious, childlike, vulnerable core which we should nourish and nurture on its turbulent journey through life.

People who readily accept the need for a gym will resist that their personalities might need some work too.

The challenge for a human now is to be more interesting to another than his or her smartphone.

Serious journalists often imagine society is adrift because people don't know certain things. Yet often, they know but just don't care. So the task of serious journalism isn't just to lay out truths. It is to make vital truths compelling to a big audience.

The degree of sympathy we feel regarding another's fiasco is directly proportional to how easy or difficult it is for us to imagine ourselves, under like circumstances, making a similar mistake.

Let death find us as we are building up our matchstick protests against its waves.

It's clear to me that there is no good reason for many philosophy books to sound as complicated as they do.