Don't be deceived by life's outcomes. Life's outcomes, while not entirely random, have a huge amount of luck baked into them.

Baseball is this intense subculture that actually doesn't speak very much for the larger culture.

The pleasure of rooting for Goliath is that you can expect to win. The pleasure of rooting for David is that, while you don’t know what to expect, you stand at least a chance of being inspired.

As idiotic as optimism can sometimes seem, it has a weird habit of paying off.

When you're trying to create a career as a writer, a little delusional thinking goes a long way.

In Japan, mothers insist on achievement and accomplishment as a sign of love and respect. Thus to fail places children in a highly shamed situation.

A banking system is an act of faith: it survives only for as long as people believe it will.

Above all, recognize that if you have had success, you have also had luck — and with luck comes obligation. You owe a debt, and not just to your Gods. You owe a debt to the unlucky.

A credit default swap was confusing mainly because it wasn't really a swap at all. It was an insurance policy, typically on a corporate bond, with semiannual premium payments and a fixed term.

One absolutely cannot tell, by watching, the difference between a .300 hitter and a .275 hitter. The difference is one hit every two weeks.

People don't like uncertainty, and their minds are tools for making sense of the world, even when the world is senseless.

If you have the courage to love, then you should have the courage to suffer, too.

It was stupid not to let MacArthur finish off those rice eaters. Push 'em back.

Our fate is determined in rooms that must be easy to clean

There is no security on this earth. Only opportunity.

The world of Shirley Jackson is eerie and unforgettable.

To me in my childhood, elves and fairies of all sorts were very real things, and my dolls were as really children as I was myself a child.

For one man who sincerely pities our misfortunes, there are a thousand who sincerely hate our success.

I want any excuse to come home. My dad is not a spring chicken any more. If anyone says, 'Go buy a postage stamp in London,' I'll go and do it.

The Internet, the camera cellphone and the like have not only sped up the world's information uptake, but they have cheapened that which they capture.