Every time we feel satisfied with what we have, we can be counted as rich, however little we may actually possess.

As victims of hurt, we frequently don't bring up what ails us, because so many wounds look absurd in the light of day.

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.

You normally have to be bashed about a bit by life to see the point of daffodils, sunsets and uneventful nice days.

Instead of bringing back 1600 plants, we might return from our journeys with a collection of small unfêted but life-enhancing thoughts.

Kant and Hegel are interesting thinkers. But I am happy to insist that they are also terrible writers.

In a secularising world, art has replaced religion as a touchstone of our reverence and devotion.