Well, if I'm only a result of past causes, then I'm a victim of those past causes. There is no deeper meaning behind things that gives me a reason to be here.

Anytime you’re gonna grow, you’re gonna lose something. You’re losing what you’re hanging onto to keep safe. You’re losing habits that you’re comfortable with, you’re losing familiarity.

As the popular trust in science fades - and many sociologists say that's happening today - people will develop a distrust of purely "scientific" psychology. Researchers in the universities haven't picked up on this; they're more interested in genetics and computer models of thinking than ever. But, in general, there is a huge distrust of the scientific establishment now.

In the past, friendship was a huge thing. But it's hard for us to think of friendship as a calling, because it's not a vocation.

I think we're miserable partly because we have only one god, and that's economics.

To hope for nothing, to expect nothing, to demand nothing. This is analytical despair.

I don't think anything changes until ideas change. The usual American viewpoint is to believe that something is wrong with the person.