British - Author | 1968 -
Any celebration meal to which guests are invited, be they family or friends, should be an occasion for generous hospitality.
Julian Baggini
FamilyFriendsHospitalityMeal
Untested assumptions and lazy habits of thought can be shown up, once put in a spotlight of a different hue.
ThoughtAssumptionsLazySpotlight
'That which does not kill me makes me stronger' is not a law of the universe. What it can be, if we so choose, is a resolution.
MeLawUniverseResolutionChoose
Waiting is so unusual that many of us can't stand in a queue for 30 seconds without getting out our phones to check for messages or to Google something.
WaitingStandGooglePhonesOutUs
It may not have the virtuous ring of the golden rule, but the maxim 'never say never' is one of the most important in ethics.
EthicsImportantSayGoldenRing
True humility is expressed in deeds, not words. The humble are those who truly walk the same ground as everyone else - not necessarily with grovelling, hunched backs, but certainly not lording it over others, either.
HumbleWalkWordsHumilityTrue
It's not leftovers that are wasteful, but those who either don't know what to do with them or can't be bothered.
KnowLeftoversWhoBotheredEither
The optimist underestimates how difficult it is to achieve real change, believing that anything is possible and it's possible now. Only by confronting head-on the reality that all progress is going to be obstructed by vested interests and corrupted by human venality can we create realistic programmes that actually have a chance of success.
ChangeSuccessProgressChance
The mark of a mature, psychologically healthy mind is indeed the ability to live with uncertainty and ambiguity, but only as much as there really is. Uncertainty is no virtue when the facts are clear, and ambiguity is mere obfuscation when more precise terms are applicable.
LiveMindUncertaintyFactsHealthy
Nature deals the cards without thought or care, and there is no point in blaming the dealer. All we can do is make the best of the hands we have been dealt.
NatureBestThoughtCareHandsBeen
When you do the right thing, but not to any particular person, we instinctively feel that we have earned some sort of pay back. Since no-one will do that for us, we opt for self-service reciprocation.
Do The Right ThingFeelYouBackPay
Christmas is a rare occasion when we are reminded that we have obligations to people we did not choose to be related to, and that love is not just a spontaneous feeling but something we sometimes really have to work at, with people we may not even much like.
WorkLoveLove IsPeopleChoose
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