There's something bad in everything good and something good in everything bad.

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.

Following your dreams is better than being led by your fears.

With every morsel I ate, I looked into her eyes and apologised for not being able to feed her enough. Her eyes, in turn, apologised for not being able to help me in these tough times.

Doubt is always accompanied by a pervasive cynicism that unconsciously puts a negative spin on whatever it touches.

I love playing villains.

I note that [Benazir] Bhutto demonstrates her own deep commitment to democracy by giving herself the title chairperson for life of the Pakistan Peoples Party.

Learning from mistakes and constantly improving products is a key in all successful companies.

Jewelry and profuse ornaments are unmistakable evidences of vulgarity.

Experience fails to teach where there is no desire to learn.

A vision of truth which does not call upon us to get out of our armchair - why, this is the desideratum of mankind.

Fatherlessness didn't strike me as being an event. It was a state of life.