Squibs

There is little difference between an obstacle and an opportunity.

Most great problems have no solutions beyond the relief to be had in sharing and analyzing them.

Culture can be examined in a Darwinian framework because it shows variation and selection. However, culture does not spread by reproduction; rather, it spreads rapidly by people adopting a new behavior, technology, or belief.

Religion orients people's behavior toward each other and toward the group as a whole.
Religious practices help people solve coordination problems. Trust and therefore trade are enhanced when all parties are members of the same religion.
Religion enhances peace, harmony, and cooperation within the group so that it increases the group's ability to compete with other groups.

Human nature is a complex mixture of extreme selfishness and extreme altruism. Which side we express depends on culture and context.

We are both selfish creatures and hive creatures -- social creatures who need love and attachment, and industrious creatures who need vital engagement and work.

Selfishness is a powerful force for individuals, but a sustained group effort requires the pursuit of virtue, justice, or sacredness.

A good place to look for wisdom is in the minds of your opponents. We need liberals to protect the rights of individuals, and conservatives to protect social structures with loyalty and sacredness.

Test of a self-help book: Does it offer more relief than could be gained from an aspirin, a country walk, or a dry martini? -Alain de Botton

Readers should seek to see their own lives in what they read because it is the only way in which art can affect rather than simply distract us from life.

The primary benefit of a novel is in sensitizing us, stimulating our dormant antennae.

Alain de Botton's list of relevant things to know about a person: religious ideas; how the spectacle of nature affects them; how they behave in the matter of (wo)men or money; rich or poor; diet; daily routine; vice or weakness.