At the heart of every frustration lies a basic structure: the collision of a wish with an unyielding reality.

Forcing people to eat together is an effective way to promote tolerance.

We depend on our surroundings obliquely to embody the moods and ideas we respect and then to remind us of them. We look to our buildings to hold us, like a kind of psychological mould, to a helpful vision of ourselves. We arrange around us material forms which communicate to us what we need — but are at constant risk of forgetting what we need — within. We turn to wallpaper, benches, paintings and streets to staunch the disappearance of our true selves.

An argument in a couple: 2 people attempting to introduce each other to important truths - by panicked shouting.

Forgiveness requires a sense that bad behaviour is a sign of suffering rather than malice.

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

Travel agents would be wiser to ask us what we hope to change about our lives rather than simply where we wish to go.