Babies and the old are permitted self-absorption. In between, it provokes resentment.

Withhold admiration from a narcissist and be disliked. Give it and be treated with indifference.

Enough is ever-receding.

Funerals prove that someone is really gone.

Flattery and insults raise the same question: What do you want?

Well-behaved: he always speaks as if his mother might be listening.

By multiplying ironies, I evade commitments.