People in the voting booth are not purely rational creatures any more than they're purely rational creatures outside the voting booth.

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.

I'm afraid my jealousy is a beast I find difficult to tame, " he said with a sigh.

There's never a dearth of reasons to shoot at the President.

A group needs enemies, because without enemies its identity cannot continue to be defined.

The child was diseased at birth, stricken with a hereditary ill that only the most vital men are able to shake off. I mean poverty-the most deadly and prevalent of all diseases.

I think sometimes women are stuck in a type. I've never dated the same type. I fall in love with personalities, and they come in different packages.

The Greek word for Christ is Kristos, which is, let's face it, Krishna, and Kristos is the same name actually.

A woman should have the ballot, because without this responsibility she cannot best develop her moral courage.

Self-satisfaction and self-pity are both condemned. What are people permitted to feel about themselves?

If you are a lighthouse, you cannot hide yourself; if you hide yourself, you cannot be a lighthouse!

New Orleans is a unique environment.