Once you get to the Enlightenment, the way that powers get to be hyperpowers isn't just by conquest. It's through commerce and innovation. Societies like the Dutch Republic and the United States used tolerance to become a magnet for enterprising immigrants.

What Chinese parents understand is that nothing is fun until you're good at it. pg 29

Questioning authority is, I think, a great thing to instill in children. I just didn't have enough of that when I was little.

There are all kinds of psychological disorders in the West that don't exist in Asia.

The Romans thought of themselves as the chosen people, yet they built the greatest army on Earth by recruiting warriors from any background.

As a purely mathematical fact, people who sleep less live more.

I worry that by losing my temper so much and being so harsh and yelling so much that, by example, I will have taught my daughters to be that way, and I'm now constantly telling them not to do that.