The problem with clichés is not that they contain false ideas, but rather that they are superficial articulations of very good ones...If...we are obliged to create our own language, it is because there are dimensions to ourselves absent from clichés, which require us to flout etiquette in order to convey with greater accuracy the distinctive timbre of our thought.

Rather than getting more spoilt with age, as difficulties pile up, epiphanies of gratitude abound.

Curiosity takes ignorance seriously - and is confident enough to admit when it's in the dark. It is aware of not knowing. And then it sets out to do something about it.

Never too late to learn some embarrassingly basic, stupidly obvious things about oneself.

You have to be quite heavily invested in someone to do them the honour of telling them you're annoyed with them.

When Proust urges us to evaluate the world properly, he repeatedly reminds us of the value of modest scenes.

Forgiveness requires a sense that bad behaviour is a sign of suffering rather than malice.