It sometimes feels like we have nothing left to give, and yet, in those dark and desperate moments, we find that if we just keep putting one foot in front of the other, there is a way to accomplish what all reason seems to argue against.

— Angela Duckworth, Grit

…it is impossible and would be unjust to love the soul of a person in the abstract and for whatever qualities might be therein.

— Luc Ferry, A Brief History of Thought

Academia has a tendency, when unchecked (from lack of skin in the game), to evolve into a ritualistic self-referential publishing game.

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Skin in the Game

In England, at least, corruption only became unfashionable (and in fact only started to be called “corruption”) when there started to be other, faster ways to get rich.

— Paul Graham, Hackers & Painters

…everything suggests that the human being is capable of consciously organising himself so as to inflict the greatest possible evil upon his neighbour…

— Luc Ferry, A Brief History of Thought