A.J. Jacobs Quotes

I am not any hate-America person. I really came here for positive reasons.

The Victorian house and lots of other buildings weren't oppressive in themselves. They were often very airy and gingerbready and fancy. But they were associated with all this [Victorian] stuffiness.

The best part of a Reg Hartt presentation is what he has to say.

Privately run jails are a mark of American "reinvented government" that has been picked up by neoconcervatives in Canada.

Advanced cultures are usually sophisticated enough, or have been sophisticated enough at some point in their pasts, to realize that foxes shouldn't be relied on to guard henhouses.

Throughout the world Dark Ages have scrawled finis to successions of cultures receding far into the past.

Detroit is largely composed, today, of seemingly endless square miles of low-density failure.

...An honest conversation with anyone is a form of praying.

Whether a person is physically in front of you or not, the love remains.

It's a scary thing, when a person you admire is suddenly revealed to be absolutely, truly human.

It gave her a feeling of her own power, to make something practical and beautiful just by using her own skill and creativity. It inspired her.

... everyone has to knit when they're here. ... But not every person has to use yarn.

We don't always get what we deserve," she replied, patting James over his heart. "Sometimes we get more; sometimes we get less. At least we get something.

And there's always a better time than right now and there always will be. But right now is what we've got.

There's the life we dream, the life we deserve, and the life we get. I'll take what I got over what I deserve any day.

I think it's an old fashioned notion that fashion needs to be exclusive to be fashionable.

Awkwardness gives me great comfort.

Without any kind of real ego on my part, I just thought, I'm going to approach the people I admire and see if they want to do something together.

A lot of models achieve that kind of iconic position by working primarily with one photographer.

I don't find clothes sexy at all. I find people sexy.

For people that don't have any interest in the psychology of nuance, who need everything to be in their face, who don't want to analyze... those aren't the people I romanticize about dressing.

Part of the talent of any company is to surround yourself with people who have good spirit and help you do more and more things.

I always say I lived my life with my grandmother. She was emotionally stable, and she was very encouraging to me.

I think beauty is youth; it's energy. I'm attracted to imperfection, style, confidence, and experimentation. So beauty, to me, is really a lot of things. It's kind of unexpected-what surprises you.

When I started working, the big models were people like Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss. It was a time when there were models who had real personalities and individuality.

To be useful to others and to be useful to myself is definitely a better place to be.

We live in a world where people are really hungry for information, and they're not hungry for information on subjects that they're not interested in.

The attention toward me is basically because of what we've built as a company. If we built a pile of crap then nobody would care what I ate for lunch.

But in another, I think a woman's going to go into a shop to find a coat or a jacket and I just don't think she's not going to go into a shop because of a bad review she probably didn't even read.

A sellout is putting your name on any piece of crap and then expecting people to buy it because it's got your name on it. That's what a sellout is to me.

Anyone who thinks designers don't talk to editors, and editors don't talk to stores doesn't know what's happening...It's called crossover, sampling all references in music, art and fashion.

I'd like to be invisible. To be anonymous and see things for what they really are. The truth may be painful but it's probably useful!

I go to the gym every morning for a couple of hours, then I come to work, whatever is on the plate for the day, I do it. I don't ask many questions, I go where I am told to.

Both my partner and I did not get into cooking so that we could wear ugly chef's coats and stuff. We dress sexy in the kitchen.

Sephora is a mecca for cosmetics, and it supports what I enjoy: You go into the store, and touch it, and try it, and love it. I've never bought anything on the Internet. I like experience.

I'm not good at hiding my feelings. I'm also not good at lying. I'm very open about everything.

I envy the people who go to Paris the first time

I go through phases where I buy only Speed Stick and Axe, and Noxzema shaving cream.

I always say that I'm not the director, I'm part of the team.

I don't know the history of art, but I got over intimidation from the art world when I realized that I was allowed to feel whatever I want and like whatever I want.

Art critics are like every other critic.

I have no problem going on record with this and probably have gone on record with this before, there aren't that many people who I respect. There just aren't.

I value very much the time before the show, when there is nothing else but to concentrate on the show, and it's just purely design.

I am really glad to be working at the profession that I love.

Sephora's business is really smart and clever - I'm all for anything that gets people up and out and into the social experience of shopping.

I love the gym, but I still want to look a bit awkward at it. I don't want to look too on top of it, you know?

The Virtue and unpretentiousness of the wise man, which I am talking about, goes unnoticed because of its transparent ordinariness.

It is important not only to read God's Word but to interpret God's world in the light of the Word.

I like uncovering the cultural prejudices I didn't even know.

Great books are great in part because of what they ask of their readers: they are not readily encountered, easily assessed.