We used to build temples, and museums are about as close as secular society dares to go in facing up to the idea that a good building can change your life (and a bad one ruin it).

Pegging your contentment to the overall state of the world rather than of your own life: the basis of morality, or a sort of madness?

Gaffe-focused journalism: revenge of intelligent people who know true evils are out there but lack the access/time to get to them.

The most attractive are not those who allow us to kiss them at once [we soon feel ungrateful] or those who never allow us to kiss them [we soon forget them], but those who coyly lead us between the two extremes.

We each appear to hold within ourselves a range of divergent views as to our native qualities.. And amid such uncertainty, we typically turn to the wider world to settle the question of our significance.. we seem beholden to affections of others to endure ourselves.

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

The lesson? To respond to the unexpected and hurtful behavior of others with something more than a wipe of the glasses, to see it as a chance to expand our understanding.