A notorious inability to express emotions makes human beings the only animals capable of suicide.

After 40 (old age for most of man's history), one should strive to be more or less packed and ready to go were the end call to come.

He was a volatile mixture of confidence and vulnerability. He could deliver extended monologues on professional matters, then promptly stop in his tracks to peer inquisitively into his guest's eyes for signs of boredom or mockery, being intelligent enough to be unable fully to believe in his own claims to significance. He might, in a past life, have been a particularly canny and sharp-tongued royal advisor.

We envy only those whom we feel ourselves to be like; we envy only members of our reference group. There are few successes more unendurable than those of our close friends.

Reputation matters so much only because people so seldom think for themselves.

When you look at the Moon, you think, ‘I’m really small. What are my problems?’ It sets things into perspective. We should all look at the Moon a bit more often.

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