Animals die, friends die, and I shall die, but one thing never dies, and that is the reputation we leave behind at our death.
The internal psychological pressure to make up a story, to explain the ruins before one’s eyes, is powerful indeed.
All heart surgeons are bastards, and Conway is no exception.
The truth was, the more he got portrayed as an unprincipled, ruthless prick, the more clients flocked to him. Because when it came to divorce, people wanted a ruthless prick. They lined up for one.
Sometimes I think everyone’s an attorney.
Herger said to me, “Be thankful, for you are fortunate.” I inquired the source of my fortune. Herger said in reply, “If you have the fear of high places, than this day you shall overcome it; and so you shall have faced a great challenge; and so you shall be adjudged a hero.
Sitting in the deserted law offices, Sanders had the feeling that he was all alone in the world, with nobody but Fernandez and the encoraching darkness. Things were happening quickly; this person he had never met before today was fast becoming a kind of lifeline for him.
They are not free at all. They are essentially our prisoners.
In reality, time doesn’t pass; we pass. Time itself is invariant. It just is. Therefore, past and future aren’t separate locations, the way New York and Paris are separate locations. And since the past isn’t a location, you can’t travel to it.
Free trade is meaningless unless there is also fair trade.
Truly, can you imagine anything more boring than fashion? Professional sports, perhaps. Grown men swatting little balls, while the rest of the world pays money to applaud.
Science has always said that it may not know everything now but it will know, eventually. But now we see that isn’t true. It is an idle boast. As foolish, and as misguided, as the child who jumps off a building because he believes he can fly.
It is an absurd expression of romantic hope.
Whoever has the power in society determines what can be studied, determines what can be observed, determines what can be thought.
Books aren’t written – they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hasn’t quite done it.
Whenever you hear the consensus of scientists agrees on something or other, reach for your wallet, because you’re being had.
Most areas of intellectual life have discovered the virtues of speculation, and have embraced them wildly. In academia, speculation is usually dignified as theory.
It’s better to die laughing than to live each moment in fear.
I am certain there is too much certainty in the world.
Personally, I don’t deal much in theory. I have to deal with the facts. And on the basis of facts, I don’t see much difference in the behavior of men and women.