None of us wants to be thought arrogant but, on two important occasions when this description was applied to me, I found it very helpful. In each case it was when I had interpreted someone else’s behaviour in a way that was critical of me. It was pointed out that I am not the centre of the universe.

What a truly lovely man! He was so kind and thoughtful but – more than that – he was careful in what he said.

Some things in life just are sad. That’s the way it is. Sadness cannot be avoided. There is no point in trying to suppress it. Feeling sad is not a crime or a psychological weakness. If something upsetting occurs then it is perfectly normal to feel sad and very abnormal – and risky to one’s emotional health (and possibly physical health as well) – not to do so.

Of course there are opportunities for all sorts of things all the time. All we have to do (if we have the inclination, the energy, the determination and various other things that are entirely self-generated) is to look for them and take advantage of them when they turn up.

I gather that violent criminals often believe that they are gentle people and that they have been misunderstood. Some people seem to have the opposite problem: they cannot forgive themselves. They live in self-inflicted torment.
The balance between these two polar opposites must be here somewhere in the middle – but I wonder if anyone ever really finds it.

When we are young we don’t really need exercise: we are so busy running after people that formal games are superfluous. By the time we need it we are probably too old and decrepit to get much benefit from whatever exercise we can do.
Best to forget all about it, I say.

The NHS has changed out of recognition in some areas of clinical practice and some geographical areas. It is time that NHS mental health services caught up their physical counterparts.These are the patients who are least able to help themselves.

Sometimes we just need to talk – but that means that there has to be someone who is prepared to listen. This mutual arrangement is what companionship is all about – otherwise we are just boring nuisances.

People come to us – in one capacity or another – if we have something to offer them. If we don’t, they won’t come.

In his youth he was a very fine athlete. Now he’s a wreck. I am sure those two statements are directly connected. The human frame can take just so much punishment and no more.