Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
An argument in a couple: 2 people attempting to introduce each other to important truths - by panicked shouting.
The media insists on taking what someone didn't mean to say as being far closer to the truth than what they did.
You have to be quite heavily invested in someone to do them the honour of telling them you're annoyed with them.
Good books put a finger on emotions that are deeply our own - but that we could never have described on our own.
Politics is so difficult, it's generally only people who aren't quite up to the task who feel convinced they are.
Architects themselves tend to shy away from the word, preferring instead to talk about the manipulation of space.
A successful work will draw out the features capable of exciting a sense of beauty and interest in the spectator.
Most of our childhood is stored not in photos, but in certain biscuits, lights of day, smells, textures of carpet.
Being funny should be an incidental byproduct of trying to get to something truthful, not a destination in itself.
Every time we feel satisfied with what we have, we can be counted as rich, however little we may actually possess.
The only possible way to begin a book is to tell oneself that its eventual failure is guaranteed — but survivable.
We should keep a careful diary of our moments of envy: they are our covert guides to what we should try to do next.
You normally have to be bashed about a bit by life to see the point of daffodils, sunsets and uneventful nice days.
Maturity: knowing where you're crazy, trying to warn others of the fact and striving to keep yourself under control.
The fear of saying something stupid (which stupid people never have) has censored far more good ideas than bad ones.
Good sex isn't just fun, it keeps us sane and happy. Having sex with someone makes us feel wanted, alive and potent.
One's doing well if age improves even slightly one's capacity to hold on to that vital truism: "This too shall pass.
Writing isn’t a career choice. It’s self-medication that over time precipitates the madness it was meant to ward off.
Happiness is impossible for longer than 15 minutes. We are the descendants of creatures who, above all else, worried.
If you are pro love, you have to be a little bit disloyal to the romantic feelings that propel you in the early days.
Travel agents would be wiser to ask us what we hope to change about our lives rather than simply where we wish to go.
as the determinants of high status keep shifting, so, too, naturally, will the triggers of status anxiety be altered.
In the gap between who we wish one day to be and who we are at present, must come pain, anxiety, envy and humiliation.
As victims of hurt, we frequently don't bring up what ails us, because so many wounds look absurd in the light of day.
So many complaints boil down to the belly ache of the fragile, mortal, ignored ego in a vast and indifferent universe.
I see religion as a storehouse of lots of really good ideas that a secular world should look at, raid, and learn from.
Emotional life is - alongside work - one of the great challenges of existence and is a theme that I keep returning to.
It is perhaps when our lives are at their most problematic that we are likely to be most receptive to beautiful things.
We study biology, physics, movements of glaciers... Where are the classes on envy, feeling wronged, despair, bitterness.
Alcohol-inspired fights are a reminder of the price we pay for our daily submission at the altars of prudence and order.
Though it may feel otherwise, enjoying life is no more dangerous than apprehending it with continuous anxiety and gloom.
What kills us isn't one big thing, but thousands of tiny obligations we can't turn down for fear of disappointing others.
The problem isn't so much finding good ideas (there is no shortage) as embedding the ones we have into everyday practice.
I think of myself as quite a shy person. But when I'm curious about something, I'll go quite far to satisfy my curiosity.
I assemble my ideas in pieces on a computer file, then gradually find a place for them on a piece of scaffolding I erect.
I waste most of the day, then finally start to write around 3 P.M., totally disgusted with myself for my wasteful nature.
Arguments are like eels: however logical, they may slip from the minds weak grasp unless fixed there by imagery and style.
When I see someone like Richard Dawkins, I see my father. I grew up with that. I'm basically the child of Richard Dawkins.
We accept the need to train extensively to fly a plane; but think instinct should be enough for marrying and raising kids.
Rather than saying 'I hate mess', it might draw more compassion to say, 'mess terrifies me as a harbinger of catastrophe'.
The study of maps and the perusal of travel books aroused in me a secret fascination that was at times almost irresistible.
Despite its maddeningly vague, inarticulate form, anxiety is almost always trying to tell you something useful and apposite.
Don't despair: despair suggests you are in total control and know what is coming. You don't - surrender to events with hope.
Choosing a spouse and a choosing career: the two great decisions for which society refuses to set up institutional guidance.
A lump rises in our throat at the sight of beauty from an implicit knowledge that the happiness it hints at is the exception.
Our disrespect for thinking: someone sitting in a chair, gazing out of a window blankly, always described as 'doing nothing'.
A great writer picks up on those things that matter. It’s almost like their radar is attuned to the most significant moments.
Love is an incurable disease. In love, there is permanent suffering. Those who love and those who are happy are not the same.
For paranoia about 'what other people think' : remember that only some hate, a very few love - and almost all just don't care.
There are few more effective ways to promote tolerance between suspicious neighbours than to force them to eat supper together.