Small Pleasures

We easily forget how much love is connected to being able to look after something

When the world gets smaller, we get larger – and feel less vulnerable, more competent

helpful perspective on the brevity and littleness of human existence

We can afford to be impressionistic because it never will really matter whether we can remember much of the detail. We’re amateurs and we need something else.

As we renew our connection with immensity, we’re humbled without being humiliated. It’s not just

So often, we exhaust ourselves and the planet in a search for very large pleasures - while all around us lies a wealth of small pleasures, which - if only we paid more attention - could daily bring us solace and joy at little cost and effort. But we need some encouragement to focus our gaze. This is a book to guide us to the best of life’s small pleasures: everything from the distinctive delight of holding a child’s hand to the enjoyment of disagreeing with someone to the joy of the evening sky; an intriguing, evocative mix of small pleasures that will heighten our senses and return us to the world with new-found excitement and enthusiasm

In the kiss, our mouth becomes a privileged place in which we surrender our defences and gift ourselves to another. We are properly exposed and raw. Kissing is a pleasure, ultimately, because it signals something more exciting even than sex: a brief respite from loneliness.

to allow someone to do these things signals a huge level of acceptance. There’s a special joy of touching someone’s back teeth with your tongue which has nothing to do with the appeal of licking enamel. All of us suffer from strong feelings of unacceptability and shame, which another’s kiss starts to work on overcoming.

Kissing is exciting because it could so easily be revolting. The inside of a mouth is deeply private. No one usually goes there outside of the dentist. It’s yours alone.

huge meaning of kissing is something we’ve built up by social agreement, and its fundamental definition is: I accept you – accept you so much that I will take a big risk with you.