Rosemary Goring quotes two writers, Arnold Bennett and Samuel Beckett ("Hogmanay: A day to make you fail better", The Herald, December 31).

I like a quotation from Kurt Vonnegut (Wampeters, Foma and Granfalloons) where he writes: "Plato says that the unexamined life is not worth living. But what if the examined life turns out to be a clunker as well?" I keep away from picking fluff out of my navel at Hogmanay, and get just get on with things. There is plenty of time later, for introspection, when it might not prove to be as hazardous an enterprise; that is if it should be found at all necessary, or even desirable.

Thelma Edwards,

Hume, Kelso.