This deep conversation went so deep into the night that it turned into early morning.

A bit extreme I know, but I enjoyed learning how much there is to learn in this world, which is enough to turn you off learning altogether.

We got onto the ancient Greeks and Romans, whose cultures hurtled civilisation thousands of years into the future.

If it wasn’t for Pythagoras I don’t think I would have got my hands on an iPhone for another thousand years. And let’s face it; if it wasn’t for the Venetians’ blinds it would have been curtains for all of us!

Seriously, these deep intellectuals … and me … mused on the question of why the ancient Greeks and Romans were building temples, baths with running hot and cold water, eating grapes and discussing politics, while most of our ancestors were still scratching in the dirt. I think the best answer of the night/morning came from me. 

I think these cultures’ brilliance and success beyond the rest of the world’s civilisations came down to an ancient Greek saying: “Moderation in all things”.

While other cultures became obsessed with cults, food, pleasure or war, the Greeks and Romans practiced moderation in all things. They only went into decline when they stopped living by their own sage legacy.

The damage to religion and politics via extremists cannot be underestimated and often brings the opposite of the extremist’s intentions.

Consider the case of Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner who revealed: “Part of the reason that I am who I am is my Puritan roots run deep. There was no drinking in my home. No discussion of sex.”

The story of Adam and Eve – not believed by many pagans but accepted in Judaism, Christianity and Islam as the origin of humanity – tells the story of how our first parents ate us out of house and home.

But what was the original sin? Well among other problems, Adam and Eve became extremists. They could have everything else in their entire world, except for the fruit of that one Tree of Knowledge –  but they wanted it all.

I think there are only three things you can’t have too much of: faith, hope and love.

When people make big mistakes in any of these three areas, it’s not because they had too much faith, hope or love, but that they put their faith, hope or love in the wrong thing or the wrong person. 

You can have too much of a good thing, even too much religion.

Jesus said to the religious Pharisees of his day that prostitutes were getting into heaven before they were, because the prostitutes calmed down their extremes, but the Pharisees couldn’t let go of their obsession with their religious man-made laws and so became poisoned by them. 

If you still haven’t started taking your New Year resolutions seriously, it’s possibly because you’ve made them too extreme in your own mind, even if you haven’t struck a blow – especially if you haven’t struck a blow. Extremists are ruining the world, so don’t think like an extremist when you think of your world. Because if something is worth doing, it’s worth doing badly.