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

There is real danger of a disconnect between what's on your business card and who you are deep inside, and it's not a disconnect that the world is ready to be patient with.

Cynics are - beneath it all - only idealists with awkwardly high standards.

The finest proof of our loyalty toward one another was our monstrous disloyalties towards everyone else.

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 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.

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.