Leaders don’t sit back and point fingers. Leaders lead with the authority of leadership . . . or without it. The authority is largely irrelevant—if you are a leader, you will lead when you are needed.

— Clay Scroggins, How to Lead When You’re Not in Charge

Newton’s work transformed science, and eventually, society. But Newton’s legacy comes with an ugly side: he inspired ‘physics envy’, which, in turn, led humanity to some truly dark places. ‘Physics envy’ is the desire to find Newtonian-type mathematical formulas or algebraic laws in other disciplines.

— Myles King, Ethical Truth in Light of Quantum Mechanics

Correlation is not causation, but if you combine the fact that much of Islamic doctrine is antihumanistic with the fact that many Muslims believe that Islamic doctrine is inerrant—and throw in the fact that the Muslims who carry out illiberal policies and violent acts say they are doing it because they are following those doctrines—then it becomes a stretch to say that the inhumane practices have nothing to do with religious devotion and that the real cause is oil, colonialism, Islamophobia, Orientalism, or Zionism.

— Steven Pinker, Enlightenment Now

There seems to be an idealistic form of geek thinking that holds that if only we made decisions better, we would never make mistakes. I was a young adherent, a worshipper at the altar of “If Only I Were Infinitely Smart.” Fortunately, I got over it. I learned the value of reversibility (long before I had a name for it) and realized the value of making decisions reversible.

— Kent Beck, Tidy First?

The way you spend your day reflects your priorities, whether you like to think of them that way or not.

— Brennen Reece, Productivity for the Depressive Polymath