One of the most beautiful passages of Rousseau is that in the sixth book of Confessions, where he describes the awakening in him of the literary sense. Of such wisdom, the poetic passion, the desire of beauty, the love of art for its own sake, has most.

The philosophical point is that our happiness and wellbeing is not based on incomes rising. This is not just the wisdom of sages but of ordinary people. Prosperity is more social and psychological: it's about identification, affiliation, participation in society and a sense of purpose.

Though sages may pour out their wisdom's treasure, there is no sterner moralist than pleasure.

We've always tried to convey these strong messages of strength and power and doing good in the world and, at the same time, to not be afraid to look at the difficulties that we experience.

Sending greeting cards to aliens is hardly a new idea. In 2005, Craigslist solicited messages for broadcast to space by a transmitter in Florida, and in 2008, NASA beamed a Beatles song to the North Star (Polaris), on the assumption that any putative Polarians would appreciate the Fab Four's 1960s-genre compositions.

When it comes to having conversations with girls what I hear from them is that there is a lot of pressure to look a certain way, act a certain way, perform a certain way, and there are very mixed messages. We are telling them, 'Be yourself, be true to who you are,' but what does that mean in a society of comparison, competition, and individualism?

It sounds so nerdy and pathetic, but what I always do on Sunday afternoon is bring my inbox down to zero, which is so sad. But e-mail has become like homework for adults. I'll have 141 messages from people who will be offended if I don't write back.

I have received hostile voice mail messages and e-mails. They are often anonymous, I'm sad to say, as anonymous messages are delivered only by very low forms of human life, in my opinion.

I think that the majority of messages are validating messages to confirm the survival of conscious. And many times that validation message is negative or sad.

I was meant to date the captain of the football team, I was going to be on a romantic excursion every Saturday night, I was destined to be collecting corsages from every boy in town before prom, accepting such floral offerings like competing sacrifices to a Delphic goddess.

Mixed messages are just part and parcel of the romantic terrain, and rather than berate yourself for any crossed wires, you'd do better to work on your future resilience.

To retain respect for sausages and laws, one must not watch them in the making.

It's important that I stay positive in my messages during matches because the rest of the team is following the tone and tension in my voice. Nothing in my voice should let them down.

My whole thing is just to put out positive messages in the music, give people something that can change their lives.

I want to impact the world and the culture in a positive way, spread super dope messages and help people through my music.

When you have a fanbase, you must use it to spread positive messages.

I have used astrology to send positive messages: 'You can do it, even if you fall, get back up again.'

Do your best to spread positive messages.

I think that true love, fairy tales, the positive messages of positive stories - I don't think those ever die. Sometimes we like to hide them in sarcasm or irony, but they are still there, and they still move us.

I know many writers who first dictate passages, then polish what they have dictated. I speak, then I polish - occasionally I do windows.

I gave up on new poetry myself 30 years ago when most of it began to read like coded messages passing between lonely aliens in a hostile world.

I decided that it was not wisdom that enabled poets to write their poetry, but a kind of instinct or inspiration, such as you find in seers and prophets who deliver all their sublime messages without knowing in the least what they mean.

Ultimately I look at the long-term goal of communicating messages. Although I've seen some traumatic things, delivering messages of comfort and closure allow for a sense of peace.

We are bombarded on all sides by a vast number of messages we don't want or need. More information is generated in a single day than we can absorb in a lifetime. To fully enjoy life, all of us must find our own breathing space and peace of mind.