A Simpler Life: A guide to greater serenity, ease and clarity

Two decent people are trying to be as nice as they can. No one is setting out to deceive. And yet, gradually, a set of hugely misleading and dangerous ideas about who each person really is is being established.

However, it’s important to understand that our worry about money is – in most countries at this point in history – typically disconnected from any issues of survival. We could keep going on much less than we have – as almost everyone who ever lived has done. What drives us to accumulate is a psychological necessity, not a material one. We are under

intentions are from the start.

‘The sole cause of man’s unhappiness is that he cannot stay quietly in his room.’

depersonalise our ambivalence and pain.

they really want and who they really are.

‘Worldly’ people are less happy than they seem

In the minutes before we sleep, we go over the memories of a trip from years ago: recapturing the charming manners of a particular waiter or the pleasure of opening the shutters in the morning and looking down a narrow street towards the sea; we’re planning to stay quietly put for a while and we don’t need to go anywhere – our lives are rich and la

no human is ever simply their worst moment – and every worst moment has a long history, which invariably merits a high degree of sympathy.