"The price we have paid for expecting to be so much more than our ancestors is a perpetual anxiety that we are far from being all we might be."

"Distress at losing an object can be as much a frustration at the intellectual mystery of the disappearance as about the loss itself."

"A notorious inability to express emotions makes human beings the only animals capable of suicide."

"To look at the paper is to raise a seashell to one's ear and to be overwhelmed by the roar of humanity."

"We read the weird tales in newspapers to crowd out the even weirder stuff inside us."

"Only as we mature does affection begin to depend on achievement."

"The lesson? To respond to the unexpected and hurtful behavior of others with something more than a wipe of the glasses, to see it as a chance to expand our understanding."

"We used to build temples, and museums are about as close as secular society dares to go in facing up to the idea that a good building can change your life (and a bad one ruin it)."

"Those who divorce aren't necessarily the most unhappy, just those neatly able to believe their misery is caused by one other person."

"The mind does most of its best thinking when we aren't there. The answers are there in the morning."

"The desire for high status is never stronger than in situations where "ordinary" life fails to answer a median need for dignity and comfort."

"As adults, we try to develop the character traits that would have rescued our parents."

"Maturity: knowing where you're crazy, trying to warn others of the fact and striving to keep yourself under control."

"Love is an incurable disease. In love, there is permanent suffering. Those who love and those who are happy are not the same."

"If one felt successful, there'd be so little incentive to be successful."

"Dreams reveal we never quite get 'over' anything: it's all still in there somewhere."

"Instead of bringing back 1600 plants, we might return from our journeys with a collection of small unf ted but life-enhancing thoughts."

"Intuition is unconscious accumulated experience informing judgement in real time."

"A 'good job' can be both practically attractive while still not good enough to devote your entire life to."

"We are continuously challenged to discover new works of culture—and, in the process, we don’t allow any one of them to assume a weight in our minds."

"We wanted to test each other's capacity for survival: only if we had tried in vain to destroy one another would we know we were safe."

"It's hard loving those who don't much like themselves: "If you're so great, why would you think I'm so great."

"Writing a book has about it some of the anxiety of telling a joke and having to wait several years to know whether or not it was funny."

"Good sex isn’t just fun, it keeps us sane and happy. Having sex with someone makes us feel wanted, alive and potent"