No one is able to produce a great work of art without experience, nor achieve a worldly position immediately, nor be a great lover at the first attempt; and in the interval between initial failure and subsequent success, in the gap between who we wish one day to be and who we are at present, must come pain, anxiety, envy and humiliation. We suffer because we cannot spontaneously master the ingredients of fulfillment.

Many moments in religion seem attractive to me even though I can't believe in any of it.

To look at the paper is to raise a seashell to one's ear and to be overwhelmed by the roar of humanity.

Endeavoring to purchase something we think beautiful may in fact be the most unimaginative way of dealing with the longing it excites in us, just as trying to sleep with someone may be the bluntest response to a feeling of love.

The media insists on taking what someone didn't mean to say as being far closer to the truth than what they did.

as the determinants of high status keep shifting, so, too, naturally, will the triggers of status anxiety be altered.

The attentions of others matter to us because we are afflicted by a congenital uncertainty as to our own value, as a result of which affliction we tend to allow others' appraisals to play a determining role in how we see ourselves. Our sense of identity is held captive by the judgements of those we live among.