Writer

I keep a picture of my beloved children close by. Also, water and plenty of pads and pens.

I learnt to stop fantasising about the perfect job or the perfect relationship because that can actually be an excuse for not living.

Politicians want people to be nice neighbours, but the tools at their disposal are just the tools of modern liberal society, which are nothing.

Kita tidak benar-benar mempelajari sesuatu dengan baik sampai ada masalah, sampai kita kesakitan, sampai sesuatu gagal dan tidak berjalan seperti yang kita harapkan ... Kita menderita, oleh karena itu kita berpikir.

Virtue is its own reward. We only invented concepts like heaven and hell to describe how we feel. We don't feel good doing bad and it's nice to help someone.

Kant dan Hegel adalah pemikir yang menarik. Tetapi saya senang untuk bersikeras bahwa mereka juga penulis yang buruk.

I was told by my father nine times a day that you were going to get a job the minute you finish your studies.

Some of the reason why we marry the wrong people is that we don't really understand ourselves.

The death of marriage has been announced so often and would seem so normal, in a sense. So what's surprising is the sheer longevity and tenacity of this institution.

I guess my overall life plan is to think about issues that concern me and try to use culture generally to make sense of them. I'm more worried that I'm going to die before I've had time.

As in all areas, we can improve how good we are at loving another person.

Ayah saya membiayai pendidikan saya; kemudian dia menjelaskan bahwa saya sendirian.

My father paid for my education; then he made it clear that I was on my own.

Le Corbusier is an outstanding writer. His ideas achieved their impact in large measure because he could write so convincingly. His style is utterly clear, brusque, funny and polemical in the best way.

Learning to give up on perfection may be just about the most romantic move any of us could make.

The idea that one might use art for 'instrumental' reasons tends to set off alarm bells at the heart of the cultural elite, who contend that it's not a pill, that it shouldn't be asked to perform some specific function, especially something as egocentric as to 'cheer you up' or to 'make you a more empathetic person.'

We tend to think of philosophies as produced by professional philosophers. Traditionally, this has meant people who have written dissertations on obscure subjects or who spend most of their day in libraries. But every human is, in an important sense, a carrier of an implicit philosophy - evident in their choices, pronouncements and commitments.

I don't want to say that our expectations of love are too high; it's just that if we're to meet them, we have to become a little more self-aware.

The philosophy I love is very selective. It is really just the bit that is involved in a search for wisdom, and this means a short roll call of names; Socrates, Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, Epicurus, Montaigne, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche.

Many people in the intellectual elite are very scared of shouting. They insist on very quiet murmurs.