Alex Morritt quotes:

Happy New Year' is a festive form of address often uttered without thinking. Yet how many souls will in fact be happy in the coming year is a taxing question requiring a great deal more thought.

As with all new inventions, there are upsides and downsides. The commercial drone is no exception. But until robust safeguards have been introduced to protect personal privacy from prying eyes in the skies, the true benefits to society of unmanned aerial vehicles will remain unrealised.

Mounting tensions in Eastern Europe send shivers down the spine. Barely a quarter of a century after the end of the Cold War we seem to be sliding inexorably towards another.

If 'seeing is believing' what happened to taste, touch, sound and smell ? Did our creator really intend to favour sight over the other senses ? I don't believe so.

New Year - a new chapter, new verse, or just the same old story ? Ultimately we write it. The choice is ours.

Why the obsession with worldly possessions ? When it's your time to go, they have to stay behind, so pack light.

Let's stop kidding ourselves that Greek debt is the Euro's key problem. With Greece gone, who's next ?

Red onion skins and New Year's Eve have much in common - they both peel away to reveal new vibrancy.

The 'Selfie Stick' has to top the list for what best defines narcissism in society today.

How initially 'to get her in the sack' and subsequently to avoid 'her giving you the sack' are not identical dilemmas faced by the male species, but they sure have a bizarre habit of being bedfellows

Every giant leap for mankind resulting from a technological advance requires a commensurate step in the opposite direction - a counterweight to ground us in humanity.

Making New Year resolutions is one thing. Remaining resolute and seeing them through is quite another.

If paparazzi armed with telephoto lenses have long been the scourge of the rich and famous; civilian drones are fast becoming the new menace to the ordinary man on the street.

A fine single malt whisky, of course, is purely medicinal - it cures all manner of ailments one may care to imagine.

Wrinkles ? Why all the fuss ? Think of them as lines of distinction; marks of maturity.

Owning a drone does not a pilot make.

Age is a seasoned trickster. To our parents, we will always be children. Within ourselves, the same yearnings of youth; the same aspirations of adolescence, will last a lifetime. Only to the young - blinded by our grey hair and slowing gait - do we appear old and increasingly beyond the pale.

The word 'friend' has become so utterly void of meaning in a world governed by social media. How can anyone truly claim to have eleven hundred friends ? In my book that would involve making time to meet at least three of them every day of the year.

Oil may run out, liquidity may dry up, but as long as ink flows freely, the next chapter of Life will continue to be written.

How many of your contemporaries - when asked the question 'Are you glad you had kids'? - invariably respond 'Yes, but..'?

Owning fewer keys opens more doors.

Motorcycle adventures are the perfect antidote to middle age.

There is already enough chattering nonsense on the ground. Do we really need aviaries in pressurised tin cans at 30,000 feet as well ?

When a political opponent resorts to the racist card, it's a sure sign of moral bankruptcy: there's no decent argument left in the armoury.

The more time we spend interconnected via a myriad of devices, the less time we have left to develop true friendships in the real world.