We accept the need to train extensively to fly a plane; but think instinct should be enough for marrying and raising kids.

Politics is so difficult, it's generally only people who aren't quite up to the task who feel convinced they are.

We often lose our tempers not with those who are actually to blame; just with those who love us enough to forgive us our foul moods.

We are tempted to believe that certain achievements and possessions will give us enduring satisfaction. We are invited to imagine ourselves scaling the steep cliff face of happiness in order to reach a wide, high plateau on which we will live out the rest of our lives; we are not reminded that soon after gaining the summit, we will be called down again into fresh lowlands of anxiety and desire.

It seems the only way to write a half decent book is to worry oneself sick on an hourly basis that one is producing a complete disaster.

Mental health: having enough safe places in your mind for your thoughts to settle.

So many complaints boil down to the belly ache of the fragile, mortal, ignored ego in a vast and indifferent universe.