"Taking control of uncertainty and successfully steering your organization through frequent bends in the road is the fundamental leadership challenge of our time. And it will call for a distinctly different type of leadership than the one you were trained for and are likely currently exercising. The advantage now goes to those who don’t just learn to live with change, but who create change. I call these people catalysts."

“I tried to learn TikTok over the pandemic. My nieces love it, but they’re 13 and they're like, 'We'll show you, Aunt Kath,’ and they show me their phones and I watch them. If you've never seen TikTok, it's just a barrage of videos. And I put them down and they're like, 'You didn't like it, did you?' I go, 'Well, here's what I'll say about it: I feel like I just sat next to someone who did an eight ball! Nope. I'm a drinker, not a drugger, so nope.' And they go, like, 'Oh, are you saying it's, like, too much?' I go, 'Yeah, it's WAY too much. I...I can't process it.' They go, 'Yeah, but just because our videos are mostly dance and music and stuff. Like, you could build your own and it won't be as crazy.' I said, 'All right,' so I signed up, and I don't know how it decides what your first batch of videos is gonna be, but my first batch, all of my people were in hospice.

I like Instagram 'cause it's passive, pleasant, there's nothin' bad. People are nice on Instagram. It's beagles, puppies eating ice cream cones, and that kinda stuff.

Now, Twitter, I like that one, but it's aggressive. You better be ready! It's like walkin' into a bar at midnight and everybody's had shots except you: 'Well, well, look what the cat dragged in with a little opinion about nothin'!'

Facebook, I don't love it. I have it, for work, but I don't like Mark Zuckerberg. Yeah, because I feel like he stole all our information. He sold it 17 times around the globe and he never paid a price for that. My parents like it, but they're 80. They get up in the morning, they drink coffee, and then they troll the entire family, every second cousin, third cousin, people we lived by when I was five. That's their morning entertainment. That's why I told my nieces and nephews, ‘Uh, heads up. If I were you guys, I would NOT friend Grandpa. Or Grandma for that matter. They look innocent and seem nice, but they're spies. They're gonna go through your whole feed, they're gonna read everything, and then they're gonna report back and tell your parents.”

"Friendship means little when it's convenient."

"Every action you take is a vote for the person you wish to become."

"Only the forgotten are ever really gone," so, if one loves others boundlessly, memories of her will reverberate throughout the ages and she shall prove immortal."

"Innovation needs space to dream, and maybe more important, space to make mistakes. Detours and complications create a deeper knowledge and understanding of your topic. If you only repeat what was successful before, you will probably never create something truly unique." 

"No matter where you plant them, people are emotional orchards that always bear fruit. The question is, 'What kind?'"

“The right thing to do is simple to see: Among all the options, it's the difficult one!”

"Reputation is a foreshadowing of our character for those who've yet to meet us."

"Tell me your habits and I'll tell you your future."

"Trust is the degree to which I believe you are for me."

"Everything we are doing we are becoming."

"Just as marriage further forms us, so too does our work."

"Oh, look at that snaggletooth! My goodness, you could eat corn through a fence!"

SNAKE RULES:

Rule #1: If you see a snake, shoot it.

Rule #2: Don’t play with dead snakes.

Rule #3: Everything looks like a snake at first.

About Rule #1:

The key is snake-killin’. What’s dangerous must die. End of story. Don’t set up a snake committee. Don’t listen to snake user groups. Don’t write snake essays or send snake memos. Don’t have conference calls about the snake. Don’t leave voice mails about the snake. Don’t have meetings about the snake. Just kill the damn snake already. If you perceive a mortal threat, waste no time. Attack it before it attacks you. You may find that getting rid of a snake can sometimes be a greater problem than the snake itself. People within a company LOVE to write memos about the snake. Don’t let ’em! Just kill, kill, kill, and kill again! It’s kill or be killed.

About Rule #2:

Keep going even if you’ve attacked the wrong threat or solved the wrong problem. That’s life. That’s learning. And after the snake is officially dead, don’t revisit it. Some people may insist that the snake is still around. They’re usually the same people who lost the argument and were overruled.

About Rule #3:

Most opportunities start out looking like a snake. If a threatening snake turns out not to be a problem, turn from attacking it to using it!

"Barksdaleisms"—

“In a fight between a bear and an alligator, it’s the terrain that determines who wins.”   

“Life is simpler when you plow around the stumps.” 

“Never mistake a clear view for a short distance.” 

“Nobody that I know can predict the next two pings of the pinball.”

“He squeezes a quarter so tight the eagle screams.”

“He’s tighter than a bull’s ass at fly time.”

“Now, I’m the President around here, so if I say a chicken can pull a tractor trailer, your job is to hitch ’em up.” 

“If we have data, let’s look at data. If all we have are opinions, let’s go with mine.” 

“Your job is to run as fast as you can toward the cliff. My job is to move the cliff.” 

“The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.” (Relentless focus on “the main thing” is a universal attribute of great operators. As an example of implementing this idea in a nonprofit context, Jim Barksdale has said: “…whatever they say to us about what’s going on here or there, our question is always, ‘But are the children learning to read?’ And we want to just stay focused on that.”)

Are our exclamation points out of hand?

See for yourself!

Charlie Ireland (agricultural consultant): “How's it feel?”

Jeremy Clarkson: “Well, I'll let you know in a minute, 'cause you're going to tell me the figures. You're going to give me the moment of truth. It hasn't been a great year for for farming, generally. I read in The Times yesterday [that] it's [been] the worst year for farmers since 1976. Dry summer.”

Ireland: “So, we're just gonna look at these top boxes. Look at the blue. And now I'm gonna frighten you. Last year, we made £226,000 from crop sales. That's before any costs. And this year's £137,000, so, £90,000 lower from the same area. That is £90,000 down.”

Clarkson: “It’s enormous.”

Ireland: “40% lower.”

Clarkson: “And £90,000 gone because of the weather. So, where are the costs, because how much?”

Ireland: “We spent £14,000 on seed, £34,000 on fertilizer, and £20,000 on sprays. So, £68,601. And then there's £68,457 of other costs: Kaleb, plus machinery. So, you've made £144 profit from the arable farm.”

Clarkson [incredulous]: “So, the fact of the matter is this: Farming seven days a week for a year, on a 1,000-acre farm, has generated an income of £144. Correct?”

Ireland: “Correct.”

Clarkson: “Well, fortunately, at the moment, we have this subsidy. When that goes, what are farmers going to do? I mean, honestly, what are they going to do? The ones who don't have Amazon film crews following them around and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? To top up the income? I mean, what do you do when the subsidy starts to go down?”

Ireland: “There will be… there's gonna be a sea change to the, rurally, you know, the countryside. There'll be 30% fewer farmers, probably, but that's where we are with farming in this day and age.”

Clarkson: “So, the next time a farmer moans about the weather, put your arm ‘round him and buy him a pint, because he's not moaning about it ‘cause it's a bit miserable working in the rain; he's moaning about it ‘cause it's crucifying. I've worked bloody hard all year and my reward is £144. Even with the grants and subsidies added in, I'd have been far better off selling up, putting the money in the bank, and living off the interest.”

[Harry Edwards:] "He would call me up and say, 'Harry, I was just thinking' and I would say, 'What do you want? What's goin' on?' or 'What do we got to talk about?' and, after a while, I came to respect his disposition."

[Arthur Ashe:] "You grow up Black in the American South, you have no control. Your life is proscribed. And then in the '60s, then you had Black ideologues trying to tell me what to do. All the time, I am saying to myself Hey, when do I get to decide what I want to do? and so I've always been fiercely protective with anyone wanting to control my life."

[Harry Edwards:] "Arthur was the fist person to really push me to understand that Black orthodoxy is not an acceptable substitute for institutionalized White racism... that it has to be about people having the freedom to make their OWN decisions in terms of how they approach this struggle. Otherwise, what are we fighting for?"

"Talent hits a target no one else can hit. Genius hits a target no one else can see."

"I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass. And I'm all out of bubblegum."

“Isn’t it amazing how far decent people will go when they’re sure they’re right.”

The person across from you has survived the unsurvivable, is wandering in the wilderness now, or is rapidly approaching violent waterfalls and unseen yet all-consuming plunge pools. In time, everyone drinks from the cup of sorrows.

AND WHEN THEY DO   — AND WHEN THEY DO —   may they also find in abundance there our spirits of patience, kindness, empathy, understanding, and love.

"Life has taught me one thing, Miss Scott: If you don’t want to be disappointed, only help those who help themselves."

"Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become."

“Opinion is the medium between knowledge and ignorance.”

“The artist will move future generations when the bones of kings have long since mouldered away.”

“Mozart is too easy for children, but too difficult for professionals.”

“Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.”

"You're pushing on an open door, Colin."

"Best way's a long way gone now."

“Multilevel marketing is the village where everything is possible. The flip side of that is if everything is possible, nothing is true.”

"Appalachia is a wound, and a joy, and a poem.

A knot of complication.

But you cannot know a place without loving it, hating it,

and feeling everything in between.

You cannot understand the complex people by only looking at the way

they have been portrayed on the television and movie screens.

One must go to the mountains to drive these winding roads

One must sit and jaw for a while with folks on their front porches

Must attend weddings and high school graduations.

One must study the history of the place and come to understand it

Must sit at a wake and look at the lines on the faces of the people

and the callouses on their hands and understand the

Gestational and generational complexities

Of poverty and pride and culture.

Something inside you has to crack to let in the light so

your eyes and brains and heart can adjust properly."

"I believe that how you sell is a free sample of how you solve."

"Resentment is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die."

“Mother is the name for God in the lips and hearts of little children.”

“They say the definition of an optimist is someone who believes the future is uncertain, and a pessimist is always right but they derive no satisfaction.”

“I was drifting, like most people do when they come out of university. I thought acting would last about a year. Here we are, 35 years [later]. There was a sort of excursion in those early years where I was also writing my own material with a couple of writing partners. Those were very happy days. I remember feeling the most satisfied and like a human being at the end of those days, more than any day on any film set ever. You know this: Any kind of primary creativity where you actually turn a blank page into something hits a very profound spot and one that is deeply satisfying.”

"They say no one's gonna save you

You've gotta make it on your own

But I called from the dark

And you picked up the phone

On my back in the raging blue

I looked up, and you cut right through

And when I came back empty-handed

You met me in the road

And you fell on my neck

And you took me back home

After all that I took from you

After all that I put you through

Here I am"

As a world waits in impotent frustration,

The Sovereign God of the universe laughs, whistles

And rules from His throne.

The Alpha and Omega determines the end from the beginning.

He raises and deposes kings.

God's designed pauses give opportunities to remember it is not by might,

Nor by power

But by His Spirit

That details of all time are orchestrated.

With God on the throne, I have nothing to fear.

Sovereign Lord, give me peace while I wait—and pray—in your pause.

“America needs Thanksgiving now more than ever. It’s inevitable, due to our battered psyche. This is a nation that’s in pain.”

"We don't use the people to get the work done, we use the work to get the people done."

“There’s nothing older than the idea that this is new.”

“And especially, you don’t want to go to a college where the professors think that students are there to provide them with an audience for indoctrination.”

"Is she an only?"

"Au contraire, she's not our only...she’s our everything."

“Music is liquid architecture; Architecture is frozen music.”

“John Prine was, without a doubt, one of the greatest songwriters this world will ever know. Many people more qualified than me have written about why that is. And many more will follow. Greatest or not, here’s what it comes down to for me and here’s why he rests on my heart’s mountain top: Because he cared enough to look—at me, you, all of us—until he saw what was noble and then he wrapped us up in melodies and sung us back to ourselves. 

That was the miracle of John Prine. And it was enough.”

“I can only coach the person in front of me.”

"Isn't it interesting how life's boomerangs often bring us home?"

"Mankind will never see an end of trouble until lovers of wisdom come to hold political power, or the holders of power become lovers of wisdom."

“There are only two forces that unite men—fear and interest.”

“Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.” 

“After you have exhausted what there is in business, politics, conviviality, love, and so on—have found that none of these finally satisfy, or permanently wear—what remains? Nature remains.”

“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”

"We recommend coming with a good attitude and a tape measure."

"Booze can be a good servant, but it’s a lousy master."

“Down to Gehenna or up to the Throne,

He travels the fastest who travels alone.”

"When one can see no future, all one can do is the next right thing."

“If you look at the world you'll be distressed. If you look within you'll be depressed. If you look at God you'll be at rest.”

"I can save the day, but you can save the world."

“All you can take with you is that which you’ve given away.”

"Beware, children, you can leave yourself behind. You won't even know when it happened. All children grow up, but some—the wild ones, the ones with the light in their eye—escape."

"I really found what I like to eat by the time I was six. I've saved a lot of experimenting since then, continuing to put a lot of salt on hamburgers and go to it."

The soul attracts that which it secretly harbors; that which it loves, and also that which it fears. Circumstances are the means by which the soul receives its own.

Circumstance does not make the man; it reveals him to himself. Men do not attract that which they want, but that which they are. Men are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves.

"If his IQ slips any lower we'll have to water him twice a day."

“She is a friend of my mind. She gather me, man. The pieces I am, she gather them and give them back to me in all the right order. It’s good, you know, when you got a woman who is a friend of your mind.”

“You can buy a man's time, you can buy a man's physical presence at a certain place, you can even buy a measured number of skilled muscular motions per hour or day. But you cannot buy enthusiasm, you cannot buy initiative, you cannot buy loyalty; you cannot buy the devotion of hearts, minds, and souls. You have to earn these things.”

“A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out teeth, but if you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.”

“Power without love is reckless and abusive. Love without power is sentimental and anemic.”

Whose woods these are I think I know.   

His house is in the village though;   

He will not see me stopping here   

To watch his woods fill up with snow.   

My little horse must think it queer   

To stop without a farmhouse near   

Between the woods and frozen lake   

The darkest evening of the year.   

He gives his harness bells a shake   

To ask if there is some mistake.   

The only other sound’s the sweep   

Of easy wind and downy flake.   

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,   

But I have promises to keep,   

And miles to go before I sleep,   

And miles to go before I sleep.

“It’s all about trying to ‘help somebody cross.’ While everybody else is fighting for a seat at the table, talking about ‘#OscarsSoWhite, #OscarsSoWhite,’ I said, ‘Y’all go ahead and do that. While you’re fighting for a seat at the table, I’ll be down in Atlanta building my own.’ Because what I know for sure is that if I could just build this table, God will prepare it for me in the presence of my enemies.”

"Now we rise—

and we are everywhere."

Scott: "Garlic bread is my favorite food. I could honestly eat it for every meal. Or just eat it all the time without even stopping." 

Ramona: "You'd get fat." 

Scott: "Why would I get fat?" 

Ramona: "Bread makes you fat." 

Scott: "Bread makes you fat?"

“Work keeps at bay three great evils: boredom, vice, and need.”

A demonym is any name derived from a place that helps describe people who live there. Californians are people who live in California. Frenchmen live in France. And so on. But what about the demonyms that are seemingly random?

How the heck did people from the Netherlands become the Dutch, for example?

Before we dig into this demonym, there are three terms we need to define: Holland, the Netherlands, and Dutch. In Old English dutch simply meant “people or nation.” (This also explains why Germany is called Deutschland in German.)

Over time, English-speaking people used the word Dutch to describe people from both the Netherlands and Germany. (At that point in time, in the early 1500s, the Netherlands and parts of Germany, along with Belgium and Luxembourg, were all part of the Holy Roman Empire.) Specifically the phrase “High Dutch” referred to people from the mountainous area of what is now southern Germany. “Low Dutch” referred to people from the flatlands in what is now the Netherlands.

Within the Holy Roman Empire, the word “Netherlands” was used to describe people from the low-lying (nether) region (land). The term was so widely used that when they became a formal, separate country in 1815, they became the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The word “Holland” literally meant “wood-land” in Old English and originally referred to people from the northern region of the Netherlands. Over time, it came to apply to the entire country. Got all that?

In some cases, the demonym preceded the place name. For example, Finland is the place where the Finns live, just as Germany is the place where the Germans live. The people came before the official government and place name. (Parts of what we call Germany was called Prussia until 1932.)

In English we denote place of origin by suffixes. The most common suffixes that denote place are: -(a)n (Chicagoan), -er (New Yorker), -ese (Chinese), -ian (Norwegian), and -ish (English). Where did these suffixes come form? Latin, of course. -ish actually comes from Old English, which is why citizens of the British Isles have -ish demonyms: Scottish, Welsh, English, etc. The other suffixes came from Latin, though they each convey slightly different senses. -ese most directly meant “belonging to or originating in a place.” -(a)n and -ian are variations on the same suffix meaning “belonging to.” -er was used principally in the sense of “one having to do with a thing,” as in lawyer or villager. As with most vocabulary in English, they all now coexist and serve the same purpose.

It’s also important not to confuse demonyms with adjectives. You can listen to an Argentinian song, but it is sung by an Argentine.

Here are a few of our other favorite exceptions to the rule:

Kiwi

Neapolitan

Liverpudlian

Cypriot

Czech

Turk

Buckeye

Hoosier

Spaniard

Greek

Swiss

Swede

Uzbek

"We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us."

“Email is a wonderful thing for people whose role in life is to be on top of things. But not for me; my role is to be on the bottom of things. What I do takes long hours of studying and uninterruptible concentration. I try to learn certain areas of computer science exhaustively; then I try to digest that knowledge into a form that is accessible to people who don't have time for such study.”

"A gift must never favor the giver."

"I don't like that man. I must get to know him better."

“Never allow someone to be your priority while allowing yourself to be their option.”

"Unbow your head, sister."

“O give thanks unto the LORD, for he is good; because his mercy endureth for ever.”

“Thanksgiving Day is a jewel to set in the hearts of honest men, but be careful that you do not take the day and leave out the gratitude.”

"We were together.

I forget the rest."

"The first to apologize is the bravest.

The first to forgive is the strongest.

The first to forget is the happiest."

“This is my fault, Honey. If I hadn't...this wouldn't have happened. I’m so sorry.”

“You’re not that powerful, Dad. Eat your food.”

“We each fall short, yet we are each enough.”

“Laughter is what gives me forward motion. We are the only creatures that both laugh and weep. I think it’s because we are the only creatures that see the difference between the way things are and the way they might be. Tears bring relief. Laughter brings release.

Some years ago I came across a phrase in Greek—asbestos gelos—inextinguishable, unquenchable laughter. I traced it to Homer’s Iliad, where it was used to describe the laughter of the gods. That's my kind of laughter. And he who laughs, lasts.

Good night. Sleep loose.”

“Our revels now are ended. These our actors,

As I foretold you, were all spirits, and

Are melted into air, into thin air:

And like the baseless fabric of this vision,

The cloud-capp'd tow'rs, the gorgeous palaces,

The solemn temples, the great globe itself,

Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,

And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,

Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff

As dreams are made on; and our little life

Is rounded with a sleep.”

“Oft expectation fails and most oft there

Where most it promises, and oft it hits

Where hope is coldest and despair most fits.”

“To be sure I must; and therefore I may assume that your silence gives consent.”

"Woe the barren world, the world without compliment or apology."

“The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right.” 

“I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken.”

“It is time for you to go home. You have been a thirsty man looking for a drink and all the while standing knee-deep in a flowing stream.

There is really nothing you must be. And there is nothing you must do. There is really nothing you must have. And there is nothing you must know. There is nothing you must become.

However, it helps to understand that fire burns and that when it rains, the earth gets wet.

Whatever, there are consequences. No body is exempt.”

“I am a fragment of a mirror whose whole design and shape I do not know. Nevertheless, with what I have I can reflect light into the dark places of this world—into the black places in the hearts of men—and change some things in some people. Perhaps others may see and do likewise. This is what I am about. This is the meaning of my life.”

“I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge. That myth is more potent than history. That dreams are more powerful than facts. That hope always triumphs over experience. That laughter is the only cure for grief. And I believe that love is stronger than death.”

“Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.”

"Before I learned the art, a punch was just a punch and a kick just a kick.

After I learned the art, a punch was no longer a punch, a kick no longer a kick.

Now that I understand the art, a punch is just a punch and a kick is just a kick."

"Sociology is psychology at scale."

"I made very few promises, and kept them all."

“Don’t sacrifice your career for your job.”

"If some is good, more must be better."

"I have a hypothesis, though that's all it is: The most common root cause of disappointment in life is missed expectations."

“The world needs fewer gurus and more scholars. Gurus preach from intuition; scholars teach from evidence. Gurus promote themselves; scholars promote ideas. Gurus make promises; scholars ask questions.”

“And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”

“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,

"Much of this testimony reveals that while technologically and financially you are giants, morally you are pygmies."

"In places like Abilene, Kansas, the big sins, left unchallenged, would have had very practical and disastrous effects. Sloth could lead to the failure of a family farm; gluttony and inebriation to the destruction of a family; lust to the ruination of a young man or woman; vanity to excessive spending, debt, and bankruptcy.

In places like that, people had an awareness not only of sin but of the different kinds of sins and the different remedies for each. Some sins, such as anger and lust, are like wild beasts. They have to be fought through habits of restraint. Other sins, such as mockery and disrespect, are like stains. They can be expunged only by absolution, by apology, remorse, restitution, and cleansing. Still others, such as stealing, are like a debt. They can be rectified only by repaying what you owe to society. Sins such as adultery, bribery, and betrayal are more like treason than like crime; they damage the social order. Social harmony can be rewoven only by slowly recommitting to relationship and rebuilding trust. The sins of arrogance and pride arise from a perverse desire for status and superiority. They only remedy for them is to humble oneself before others.

In other words, people in earlier times inherited a vast moral vocabulary and set of moral tools, developed over centuries and handed down from generation to generation. This was a practical inheritance, like learning how to speak a certain language, which people could use to engage their own moral struggles."

"We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances...to choose one's own way."

“We succeeded in taking that picture [from deep space], and, if you look at it, you see a dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever lived, lived out their lives. The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings, thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every hopeful child, every mother and father, every inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history of our species, lived there on a mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam.

The earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and in triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of the dot on scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner of the dot. How frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light.

Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity—in all this vastness—there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. It is up to us. It’s been said that astronomy is a humbling, and I might add, a character-building experience. To my mind, there is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly and compassionately with one another and to preserve and cherish that pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.”

“Now, I’m nobody, but I think I was able to meet the challenge. I did what I had to—when I had to—and I was lucky to be able to do it.”

“How do we get ahead of crazy if we don’t know how crazy thinks?“

"The privately educated Englishman is the greatest dissembler on earth… Was, is now, and ever shall be, for as long as our disgraceful school system remains intact. Nobody will charm you so glibly, disguise his feelings from you better, cover his tracks more skillfully, or find it harder to confess to you that he's been a damn fool. Nobody acts braver when he's frightened stiff, or happier when he's miserable; nobody can flatter you better when he hates you than your extrovert Englishman or woman."

"I smell like sleep. I need to take a shower at your place. Worst case, I need to wash my bangs in the sink."

"You're a kite dancing in a hurricane, Mr. Bond."

“A room without books is like a body without a soul.”

"Carve every word before you let it fall."

"I feel excited and lucky to be working on this project for Netflix. Here's what I have learned, if you retire to spend more time with your family, check with your family first. Thanks for watching, drive safely."

“Don’t look too long at the door that closes, or you won’t see the door that opens. The ancient Egyptian myth claims that every 500 years the phoenix bird would fly into a fire of its own origin and burn to ashes, only to rise again full of vigor.”

“I do not aim with my hand; he who aims with his hand has forgotten the face of his father.

I aim with my eye.

I do not shoot with my hand; he who shoots with his hand has forgotten the face of his father.

I shoot with my mind.

I do not kill with my gun; he who kills with his gun has forgotten the face of his father.

I kill with my heart.” 

"I still have faith, but I don't know why. Maybe it's the fire in my little girl's eyes."

"Walked out this morning, I don't believe what I saw—

A hundred billion bottles washed up on the shore.
Seems I'm not alone in being alone,
A hundred billion castaways... looking for a home.”

"I thought it would last my time— 

The sense that, beyond the town, 

There would always be fields and farms, 

Where the village louts could climb 

Such trees as were not cut down; 

I knew there’d be false alarms

In the papers about old streets 

And split level shopping, but some 

Have always been left so far; 

And when the old part retreats 

As the bleak high-risers come 

We can always escape in the car.

Things are tougher than we are, just 

As earth will always respond 

However we mess it about; 

Chuck filth in the sea, if you must: 

The tides will be clean beyond. 

—But what do I feel now? Doubt?

Or age, simply? The crowd 

Is young in the M1 cafe; 

Their kids are screaming for more— 

More houses, more parking allowed, 

More caravan sites, more pay. 

On the Business Page, a score

Of spectacled grins approve 

Some takeover bid that entails 

Five per cent profit (and ten 

Per cent more in the estuaries): move 

Your works to the unspoilt dales 

(Grey area grants)! And when

You try to get near the sea 

In summer . . . 

        It seems, just now, 

To be happening so very fast; 

Despite all the land left free 

For the first time I feel somehow 

That it isn’t going to last,

That before I snuff it, the whole 

Boiling will be bricked in 

Except for the tourist parts— 

First slum of Europe: a role 

It won’t be hard to win, 

With a cast of crooks and tarts.

And that will be England gone, 

The shadows, the meadows, the lanes, 

The guildhalls, the carved choirs. 

There’ll be books; it will linger on 

In galleries; but all that remains 

For us will be concrete and tyres.

Most things are never meant. 

This won’t be, most likely; but greeds 

And garbage are too thick-strewn 

To be swept up now, or invent 

Excuses that make them all needs. 

I just think it will happen, soon."

"I am not resigned to the shutting away of loving hearts in the hard ground.

So it is, and so it will be, for so it has been, time out of mind:

Into the darkness they go, the wise and the lovely.

Crowned with lilies and with laurel they go; but I am not resigned.

Lovers and thinkers, into the earth with you.

Be one with the dull, the indiscriminate dust.

A fragment of what you felt, of what you knew,

A formula, a phrase remains,—but the best is lost.

The answers quick and keen, the honest look, the laughter, the love,—

They are gone. They are gone to feed the roses.

Elegant and curled is the blossom. Fragrant is the blossom. I know. But I do not approve.

More precious was the light in your eyes than all the roses in the world.

Down, down, down into the darkness of the grave.

Gently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind;

Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave.

I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned."

"The book I wrote, The Outpost, remains the professional work I am proudest of. It is not what has resulted in the most Twitter memes, but it is the most meaningful. It was the one least about me; and it may be one professional achievement, maybe, perhaps, that has a chance of outlasting me. That which you end up doing in the service of something greater than you—even if it means that you feel lesser, humbler, even worthless by comparison—by honoring the humanity of others, that will allow you to get in closer touch with your own."

"My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:

Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"

“He is a man so sui generis, that I do not wonder at his not being apprehended till he is seen. His influence is of a curious sort. There is a vague nobleness and thorough sweetness about him, which move people to their very depths, without their being able to explain why. The logicians have an incessant triumph over him, but their triumph is of no avail. He conquers minds, as well as hearts, wherever he goes; and without convincing anybody’s reason of any one thing, exalts their reason, and makes their minds worth more than they ever were before.”

"If I've learned one thing above all else, know what it is? What you put out into the world will always come back to you, but never how you predict."