"

There's a whole category of people who miss out by not allowing themselves to be weird enough.

"

Anyone who isn't embarrassed of who they were last year probably isn't learning enough.

"

Just be yourself' is about the worst advice you can give some people.

"

There are books that speak to us of our own lives with a clarity we cannot match. They prevent the morose suspicion that we do not fully belong to the...more

"

Most victories are, in the best way, acts of revenge.

"

Though it may feel otherwise, enjoying life is no more dangerous than apprehending it with continuous anxiety and gloom.

"

The romantic person instinctively sees marriage in terms of emotions, but what a couple actually gets up to together over a lifetime has much more in ...more

"

Most business meetings involve one party elaborately suppressing a wish to shout at the other: 'just give us the money'.

"

There is no such thing as work-life balance. Everything worth fighting for unbalances your life.

"

Maturity' really means: being very unsurprised by, and calm around, pain and disappointment.

"

To appreciate life's small moments, it helps to have a sense the whole can never be made perfect.

"

Pegging your contentment to the overall state of the world rather than of your own life: the basis of morality, or a sort of madness?

"

The assumption is that life doesn't need to be navigated with lessons. You can just do it intuitively. After all, you only need to achieve autonomy fr...more

"

It's very hard to respect people on holiday - everybody looks so silly at the beach, it makes you hate humanity - but when you see people at their wor...more

"

Never too late to learn some embarrassingly basic, stupidly obvious things about oneself.