Saying you should try to be kind sounds like a really silly and obvious thing to say. It’s the sort of thing you only need to tell little children to stop them being nasty in the playground. You know there are better things to be than kind. Like being creative, or the top dog.
It can be so hard to forgive because – so often – we simply are in the right and the scale of the folly, thoughtlessness and meanness of others seems utterly…
Setting out to try to become a nicer person sounds like a deeply colourless and dispiriting ambition. In theory, we love niceness of course, but in practice, there appears to be…
It is one of the seven virtues of Christianity. It used to have a central place in Roman ethics and Judaism as well. Today, we remain deeply impressed by the idea…