You only really discover the strength of your spine when your back is against the wall.

In the margin for error lies all our room for maneuver.

Aphorisms are literature's hand luggage. Light and compact, they fit easily into the overhead compartment of your brain.

London always reminds me of a brain. It is similarly convoluted and circuitous. A lot of cities, especially American ones like New York and Chicago, are laid out in straight lines. Like the circuits on computer chips, there are a lot of right angles in cities like this. But London is a glorious mess. It evolved from a score or so of distinct villages, that merged and meshed as their boundaries enlarged. As a result, London is a labyrinth, full of turnings and twistings just like a brain.

Advice is given freely because so much of it is worthless.

By bringing together what we know and what we don't know through analogy, metaphorical thinking strikes the spark that ignites discovery.

Heroism often results as a response to extreme events.