What makes a house truly beautiful? Why are many new houses so ugly? Why do we argue so bitterly about sofas and pictures - and can differences of taste ever be satisfactorily resolved? This book explores one of our most intense but often hidden love affairs: with our houses and their furnishings.

Sets six of the finest minds in the history of philosophy to work on the problems of everyday life. Here then are Socrates, Epicurus, Seneca, Montaigne, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche on some of the things that bother us all: lack of money, the pain of love, inadequacy, anxiety; the fear of failure and the pressure to conform.

AS HEARD ON THE DIARY OF A CEO PODCAST WITH STEVEN BARTLETTFrom the Sunday Times bestselling author of The School of LifeA healthy mind knows how to hope, hanging on tenaciously to the reasons to keep going. A healthy mind resists unfair comparisons, not allowing others’ successes to throw it off course. A healthy mind avoids catastrophic imaginings, distinguishing worries of what could happen from what likely will.

Just as there is no such thing as a human being who will never become physi...