What I want to argue for is not that we should give up on our ideas of success, but that we should make sure that they are our own. We should focus in on our ideas and make sure that we own them, that we're truly the authors of our own ambitions. Because it's bad enough not getting what you want, but it's even worse to have an idea of what it is you want and find out at the end of the journey that it isn't, in fact, what you wanted all along.

Those who divorce aren't necessarily the most unhappy, just those neatly able to believe their misery is caused by one other person.

Most anger stems from feelings of weakness, sadness and fear: hard to remember when one is at the receiving end of its defiant roar.

Wealth is not an absolute. It is relative to desire. Every time we yearn for something we cannot afford, we grow poorer, whatever our resources. And every time we feel satisfied with what we have, we can be counted as rich, however little we may actually possess.

Love is an incurable disease. In love, there is permanent suffering. Those who love and those who are happy are not the same.

Feeling lost, crazy and desperate belongs to a good life as much as optimism, certainty and reason.

We may seek a fortune for no greater reason than to secure the respect and attention of people who would otherwise look straight through us.