One of the stranger moves we all have to practise if we are to learn to think effectively is more regularly to imagine that we might be wrong.

Love is built out of a constantly renewed and gently resigned awareness that weakness-free people do not exist.

the task of love is adequate curiosity.

Bad behaviour is invariably the consequence of hurt: the one who shouts did not feel heard; the one who mocks was once humiliated; the constant cynic had hope snatched from them.

While the thought of death may be terrifying, its inevitability might also usher in a feeling of fruitful experimentation.

However, our inaction is also a form of choice, and not necessarily of the optimal kind.

We are not terrified enough for our own good. We are behaving like gods or superhuman entities who have centuries to get it right.

The major obstacle to rigorous thinking is the feeling that we are immortal.

The opposite of empathy isn’t just thinking of yourself; it’s thinking of yourself in limited ways.