Stigmas speak to the idea of difference and how difference shames us and those we know.

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.

Your anger, pride, deceit, and greed should be such that they hurt no one. If they are limited to where they only hurt only you and no one else, then the path of liberation is open.

I believe cats to be spirits come to earth. A cat, I am sure, could walk on a cloud without coming through.

Party loyalty lowers the greatest men to the petty level of the masses.

I need to know if she [Sarah Palin] thinks dinosaurs were here four thousand years ago... because she's going to have the nuclear code.

For light I go directly to the Source of light, not to any of the reflections.

You are capable of more than you ever thought.

I currently live in the Plaza in New York and I love it - all that history, all those interesting stories.

The facts we see depend on where we are placed and the habits of our eyes.

When people think, Democrats win.