Beyond the mountains, there are always more mountains, at least until you reach the final mountain before your time on earth comes to an end. In the … - Oliver Burkeman

Just as a factory pumping out pollutants degrades that air for everyone, so a TV blasting cable news into an airport lounge degrades the attentional capacities of everyone nearby.

Inspiration is for amateurs,' the artist Chuck Close once memorably observed. 'The rest of us just show up and get to work.

Even an undertaking as seemingly hedonistic as a year spent backpacking around the globe could fall victim to the same problem, if your purpose isn't to explore the world but — a subtle distinction, this — to add to your mental storehouse of experiences, in the hope that you'll feel, later on, that you'd used your life well.