The modern holy trinity is money, sex and celebrity.

the most successful marriages were always based on both partners feeling that they had done rather well for themselves.

[My father and his friends] believed in equality for women without troubling to acquire the basic domestic skills which would have made that equality possible.

There is no point in regretting any part of the past. The past can't now be altered, the future has yet to be lived, and consciously to experience every moment of the present is the only way to gain at least the illusion of immortality.

A regime which combines perpetual surveillance with total indulgence is hardly conducive to healthy development.

Charm is often despised but I can never see why. No one has it who isn't capable of genuinely liking others, at least at the actual moment of meeting and speaking. Charm is always genuine; it may be superficial but it isn't false.

It is always easy to question the judgement of others in matters of which we may be imperfectly informed.