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.

Magic is not inherently anything. It is what you sell it as.

I would like a bit of me - that’s how I put my back out!

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.

Liberating but hard to remember we're just bit-parts in the lives of people we know, who care very little for our secrets

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