And in the places you go, you'll see the place where you're from

This is gonna sound stupid, but I saw at one point that our mothers are... bus drivers. No, they are the bus. See, they're the vehicle that gets us here. They drop us off and go on their way. They continue on their journey. And the problem is that we keep tryin' to get back on the bus, instead of just lettin' go.

There are 10¹¹ stars in the galaxy. That used to be a huge number. But it's only a hundred billion. It's less than the national deficit! We used to call them astronomical numbers. Now we should call them economical numbers.

a large office building in New York City had a problem in the mid 1900s. many people were complaining that the wait for elevators was too long. so they hired a queue expert to figure out the perfect position for elevators so as to reduce the wait.

should the elevator's go to the bottom floor when not in use? should one of them go to the top floor, and the other to the bottom? or perhaps they should wait in the middle floor?

numerous combinations were tried. and while waiting time reduced, people still complained.

the solution turned out not to be a scientific one, but a "human" one.

they installed mirrors by the elevators and complaints dramatically went down as people lost track of time looking at themselves while waiting.

and ever since most elevators around the world are surrounded by mirrors.

Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.

A life. A life, Jimmy. You know what that is? It's the shit that happens while you're waiting for moments that never come.

Which name shall I write?

in ancient athens, a special vote could be called in which a member of society would be banished from the city in a practice called ostracism. this was done if it was believed that any one individual had gained too much power or influence and unbalanced the power of athenian democracy. but, like all things law, the spirit of it was mercurial at best.

in 482 BC a prominent and respected athenian named aristides, popularly known simply as "the just" for his impartial deliberations and integrity, saw a local peasant on the day of the vote needing help.

"Which name shall I write?", offered Aristides.

"Thank you. Please put down 'Aristides' for me," the man replied.

"Certainly. But may I ask, why you chose him? Has this man ever wronged you?" Aristides inquired as he dutifully wrote his own name down.

"No. I have never met him." the man answered.

"I see. Why then do you vote to ostracize him?"

"I'm just sick and tired of everybody calling him 'The Just' all the time. What an asshole."

You've showed me I'm not an addict. But I didn't get any work done. I'd get up in the morning and stare at a blank piece of paper. I'd have no ideas, just like an ordinary person.

You've set mathematics back a month.

paul erdös, one of the most famous (if not the most famous) mathematicians of the 20th century was known for his love of amphetamines to fuel his math binges.

erdös did not see it as an addiction, but his friends saw otherwise. a bet was placed that erdös could not forgo the use of drugs for a month so as to prove his addiction.

erdös handily won the bet, but lambasted his friends for setting mathematical progress back a month in such a stupid bet.

"We always imagine eternity as something beyond our conception, something vast, vast! But why must it be vast? Instead of all that, what if it's one little room, like a bath house in the country, black and grimy and spiders in every corner, and that's all eternity is? I sometimes fancy it like that."

“Can it be you can imagine nothing juster and more comforting than that?” Raskolnikov cried, with a feeling of anguish.

“Juster? And how can we tell, perhaps that is just, and do you know it’s what I would certainly have made it,” answered Svidrigailov, with a vague smile.

"I don't know many people."

"I know too many people. I guess we're both lonely."

The hour of departure has arrived, and we go our ways— I to die, and you to live. Which is better God only knows.

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

"A king should always stand by his word."

when king conrad III laid siege to the city of Weinsberg, Germany the inhabitants of the city knew that fighting to the last man was their only way.

that was until the king offered the rebel city a deal: clemency and safe passage out to all the women in the city, plus they were allowed to leave with all they could carry on their shoulders.

naturally, the women left carrying their husbands.

the amused king pardoned the rebel men for what is the essence of king if not his word?

Not all who wander are lost.

But we are all human, I thought, wondering what I meant.

I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.

And her joy was nearly like sorrow.

during world war 2, the US military would inspect returning bomber planes for damage. the planes that successfully returned were riddled with bullet holes and pieces blown off from enemy fire. the military would then patch up the holes and instruct future planes to be extra reinforced in the areas of the holes.

and then abraham wald, a mathematician, came along.

yes, it would make sense to add extra shielding to the places were the holes were, but, he argued, the holes were not an indication of a problem. if anything, they knew that planes with these holes were capable of returning.

he concluded that it was the areas were there were no holes that were the real problem, as those planes that had this damage never returned.

the military took his advice and instead focused on the areas where there were no holes, improving the safe return of pilots on future missions.

The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.

When you grow up you tend to get told the world is the way it is and you're life is just to live your life inside the world.

Try not to bash into the walls too much. Try to have a nice family, have fun, save a little money.

That's a very limited life.

Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact: Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you and you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use.

Once you learn that, you'll never be the same again.

The children now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise.

I am acutely aware that you have not elected me as your President by your ballots. So I ask you to confirm me as your President with your prayers.

when the vice president of the united states, spiro agnew, resigned in 1973 the country needed a new vice president. the least controversial choice was a congressman named gerald ford. naturally, richard nixon chose him.

one year later, the president would resign in the Watergate scandal, and the quiet congressman from michigan's 5th congressional district would himself become the 38th president of the united states.

some say this makes gerald ford the president nobody voted for...but that's not quite correct.

he was the president only 118,000 people voted for. in the state of michigan. in the 1972 congressional election: the most important un-important congressional election of all time.

Today, as it did then, the bleak autumn wind whispers and sighs;
Nothing has changed, except in the world of Man. 

She wasn't doing a thing that I could see, except standing there leaning on the balcony railing, holding the universe together.

"But I don’t want to go among mad people," Alice remarked.

"Oh, you can’t help that," said the Cat: "we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad."

"How do you know I’m mad?" said Alice.

"You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn’t have come here.

I don't know me
and you don't know you
so we fit so good together cause I knew you like I knew myself

If there's one thing I really despise, it's an indispensable woman.

It is startling to think that all Europe once looked like this Puszcza. To enter it is to realize that most of us were bred to a pale copy of what nature intended. Seeing elders with trunks seven feet wide, or walking through stands of the tallest trees here—gigantic Norway spruce, shaggy as Methuselah—should seem as exotic as the Amazon or Antarctica to someone raised among the comparatively puny, second-growth woodlands found throughout the Northern Hemisphere.

Instead, what’s astonishing is how primally familiar it feels. And, on some cellular level, how complete.