We must steel ourselves against utopias and be content with a slightly better state.

The trait [Morey] looked for was awareness that they were seeking answers to questions with no certain answers--that they were inherently fallible. "I always ask them, 'Who did you miss?'" he said. Which future superstar had they written off, or which future bust had they fallen in love with? "If they don't give me a good one, I'm like, 'Fuck 'em.

Foolish defiance was his lifelong response to being ill.

There have been only 268 of the past 3,421 years free of war

Civilization exists by geological consent, subject to change without notice.

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.