The desire for high status is never stronger than in situations where "ordinary" life fails to answer a median need for dignity and comfort.

Bad architecture is in the end as much a failure of psychology as of design. It is an example expressed through materials of the same tendencies which in other domains will lead us to marry the wrong people, choose inappropriate jobs and book unsuccessful holidays: the tendency not to understand who we are and what will satisfy us.

I went to church and couldn't swallow it. The music was nice but I don't belong there.

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

Envy: a confused, tangled guide to one's own ambitions.

I assemble my ideas in pieces on a computer file, then gradually find a place for them on a piece of scaffolding I erect.

It is the most ambitious and driven among us who are the most sorely in need of having our reckless hopes dampened through immersive dousings in the darkness which religions have explored. This is a particular priority for secular Americans, perhaps the most anxious and disappointed people on earth, for their nation infuses them with the most extreme hopes about what they may be able to achieve in their working lives and relationships.