Justin Lancy

No one is free who is not master of himself. Pythagoras

On the whole, human beings want to be good, but not too good, and not quite all the time.

Good stories tend us towards clarity and transcendence.

empire is primarily a money-making concern.

Our quarrel with efficiency is not that it gets things done, but that it is a thief of time when it leaves us no leisure to enjoy ourselves and that it frays our nerves in trying to get things done perfectly.

I eventually learned to treat each solitary writing session at home the same way I treat a live performance. In other words, I learned to treat myself with the same care and respect I give to an audience. This was not a trivial lesson. These rituals and preparations function to discharge and clear obscurations and nervous doubts, to invoke our

I started to understand the meaning of glamour; that how you present yourself to your fellow man is a way of communicating ideas.

One of the main themes in this book is the idea that refuge must be understood as not only a humanitarian issue but also one of development. Put simply, it is not just about indefinitely providing food, clothing, and shelter. It has to be about restoring people’s autonomy through jobs and education, particularly in the countries in the developing

uttering taboo truths can have a liberating effect even if many people privately already know them to be true: The only surprising thing about the WikiLeaks revelations is that they contain no surprises. Didn’t we learn exactly what we expected to learn? The real disturbance was at the level of appearances: we can no longer pretend we don’t know