“Rather than getting more spoilt with age, as difficulties pile up, epiphanies of gratitude abound.”

“Rather than teasing the buyers, we may blame the society in which they lived for setting up a situation where the purchase of ornate cabinets felt psychologically necessary and rewarding, where respect was dependent on baroque displays. Rather than a tale of greed, the history of luxury could more accurately be read as a record of emotional trauma. It is the legacy of those who have felt pressured by the disdain of others to add an extraordinary amount to their bare selves in order to signal that they too may lay a claim to love.”

“Forgiveness requires a sense that bad behaviour is a sign of suffering rather than malice.”

“Paying tax should be framed as a glorious civic duty worthy of gratitude - not a punishment for making money.”

“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?”

“After 40 (old age for most of man's history), one should strive to be more or less packed and ready to go were the end call to come.”

“Philosophy, art, politics, religion and bohemia have never sought to do away entirely with the status hierarchy; they have attemptee, rather, to institute new kinds of hierarchies based on sets of values unrecognised by, and critical of, those of the majority.. They have provided us with persuasive and consoling reminders that there is more than one way of succeeding in life.”