To be shown love is to feel ourselves the object of concern: our presence is noted, our name is registered, our views are listened to, our failings are treated with indulgence and our needs are ministered to. And under such care, we flourish.

For paranoia about 'what other people think' : remember that only some hate, a very few love - and almost all just don't care.

Let death find us as we are building up our matchstick protests against its waves.

what we call a home is merely any place that succeeds in making more consistenly available to us the important truths which the wider world ignores, or which our distracted and irresolute selves have trouble holding onto." (p123) Architecture of Happiness

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

The materialistic view of happiness of our age starkly revealed in our understanding of the word "luxury.

My writing always came out of a very personal place, out of an attempt to stay sane.