We may seek a fortune for no greater reason than to secure the respect and attention of people who would otherwise look straight through us

It's clear to me that there is no good reason for many philosophy books to sound as complicated as they do.

Small issues are really just large ones that haven't been accorded the requisite attention.

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 work they elicit respect, whether it's a mechanic, a stonemason or an accountant.

Feeling lost, crazy and desperate belongs to a good life as much as optimism, certainty and reason.

The Arab-Israeli conflict is also in many ways a conflict about status: it's a war between two peoples who feel deeply humiliated by the other, who want the other to respect them. Battles over status can be even more intractable than those over land or water or oil.