Forty-two, as calculated by the supercomputer Deep Thought in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, is the answer to life, the Universe and Everything. It is, of course, not an answer but a joke. But is it a sad joke – implying that there is, ultimately, no answer? Or was it wisdom – that the answer to life is not found in abstractions like numbers but only in lives actually lived?

I reckon Deep Thought was wise. In 42: Deep Thought on Life, the Universe, and Everything, I take forty-two aphorisms, written by individuals who have lived life richly, as starting-points for those seeking to live more fully now.