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.

as the determinants of high status keep shifting, so, too, naturally, will the triggers of status anxiety be altered.

I learnt to stop fantasising about the perfect job or the perfect relationship because that can actually be an excuse for not living.

A world where a majority had imbibed the lessons implicit within tragic art would be one in which the consequences of our failures would necessarily cease to weigh upon us so heavily.

According to Montaigne, it was the oppressive notion that we had complete mental control over our bodies, and the horror of departing from this portrait of normality, that had left the man unable to perform sexually.

We wanted to test each other's capacity for survival: only if we had tried in vain to destroy one another would we know we were safe.

To one's enemies: "I hate myself more than you ever could.