It's the stupid questions that have some of the most surprising and interesting answers. Most people never think to ask the stupid questions.

... I think that I was too self-centered to ever develop good skills as a peacemaker. In my younger days, I assumed that it was because I was smarter than everyone else, with no patience for explaining things in short words for mouthbreathers who just didn't get it.

We have a name for things that don't copy themselves: dead.

The first casualty of any battle is the plan of attack.

The opposite of esprit d'escalier is the way that life's embarrassments come back to haunt us even after they're long past. I could remember every stupid thing I'd ever said or done, recall them with picture-perfect clarity. Any time I was feeling low, I'd naturally start to remember other times I felt that way, a hit parade of humiliations coming one after another to my mind.

Write even when the world is chaotic.

For decades, computers have been helping us to remember, but now it's time for them to help us to ignore.