Our jobs make relentless calls on a narrow band of our faculties, reducing our chances of achieving rounded personalities and leaving us to suspect (often in the gathering darkness of a Sunday evening) that much of who we are, or could be, has gone unexplored.

Out of the millions of people we live among, most of whom we habitually ignore and are ignored by in turn, there are always a few that hold hostage our capacity for happiness, whom we could recognize by their smell alone and whom we would rather die than be without.

For paranoia about 'what other people think' : remember that only some hate, a very few love - and almost all just don't care.

We are certainly influenced by role models, and if we are surrounded by images of beautiful rich people, we will start to think that to be beautiful and rich is very important - just as in the Middle Ages, people were surrounded by images of religious piety.

Art holds out the promise of inner wholeness.

After 40 (old age for most of man's history), one should strive to be more or less packed and ready to go were the end call to come.

Reputation matters so much only because people so seldom think for themselves.