"Most books fail, not so much from a want of ability in their authors, as from an absence in their productions of a thorough development of their ability."

“The difference between smartphones and cigarettes is this: a cigarette robs 10 minutes from your lifespan, but at least has the decency to wait and withdraw all that time in bulk as you near the end of your life - whereas a smartphone steals your time in the present moment, by degrees. Five minutes here. Five minutes there. Then you look up and you're 85 years old.”

Source : "Apple's software updates are like changing the water in a fish tank. I'd rather let the fish die" by Charlie Brooker, www.theguardian.com. September 22, 2014.

“The first cup caresses my dry lips and throat, The second shatters the walls of my loneliness, The third explores the dry rivulets of my soul Searching for legends of five thousand scrolls. With the fourth the pain of past injustice vanishes through my pores. The fifth purifies my flesh and bone. With the sixth I commune with the immortals. The seventh conveys such pleasure I am overcome. The fresh wind blows through my wings As I make my way to Penglai.”

“Nothing is harder than to accept oneself.”

“There's no such things as survival of the fittest. Survival of the most adequate, maybe. It doesn't matter whether a solution's optimal. All that matters is whether it beats the alternative.”

Source : Peter Watts (2014). “Firefall”, p.222, Head of Zeus

“My father and all my uncles on both sides served in the military in World War II and Korea.”

“You get that love from the people. It lets me know that all the madness I go through, all the stuff that the business has to offer with all its madness; it makes it worthwhile.”

“To understand is hard. Once one understands, action is easy.”

“Climate change is "some kind of tricky campaign made up by some commercial structures to promote their business projects."”