Those who divorce aren't necessarily the most unhappy, just those neatly able to believe their misery is caused by one other person.

It is not necessarily at home that we best encounter our true selves. The furniture insists that we cannot change because it does not; the domestic setting keeps us tethered to the person we are in ordinary life, who may not be who we essentially are.

As adults, we try to develop the character traits that would have rescued our parents.

The attentions of others matter to us because we are afflicted by a congenital uncertainty as to our own value, as a result of which affliction we tend to allow others' appraisals to play a determining role in how we see ourselves. Our sense of identity is held captive by the judgements of those we live among.

Feeling lost, crazy and desperate belongs to a good life as much as optimism, certainty and reason.

A good half of the art of living is resilience.

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.