The single most valuable human trait, the one quality every schoolchild and adult should be taught to nurture, is, quite simply, kindness.

I control the conditions so my testers become my testees.

Few kids seek to learn a skill specifically designed to impress people unless they feel less than impressive themselves.

A diner having a row with a waiter in a swanky restaurant chills the blood in a way that a quarrel over a pizza order elsewhere would never do. Compassion is rarely the custom of the privileged.

Whereas non-scientific (and potentially dangerous) thinking starts with a premise and then looks for things that support it, scientific thinking constantly tries to disprove itself. That alone makes all the difference in the world.

Each of us is leading a difficult life, and when we meet people we are seeing only a tiny part of the thinnest veneer of their complex, troubled existences. To practise anything other than kindness towards them, to treat them in any way save generously, is to quietly deny their humanity.

To impress people as much as we would wish, we would first need to successfully adopt each of their value systems