“An innate gift and a certain amount of intelligence are important, but what really pays is ordinary experience.”

“... and everybody will have what they never yet have had, a certain amount of that priceless boon, leisure-- leisure to sit down and look at themselves, and inquire what it is they really mean, and really want, and really intend to do with their lives.”

“We pray for the big things and forget to give thanks for the ordinary, small (and yet really not small) gifts.”

“The number of games went up or down according to the brutal, elegant logic of the economics of fun:a certain amount of difficultyplusa certain amount of your friendsplusa certain amount of interesting strangersplusa certain amount of rewardplusa certain amount of opportunityequaledfun”

“The most certain test by which we judge whether a country is really free is the amount of security enjoyed by minorities”

“Playing it safe and tiptoeing through life is exhausting. Keeping all of your gifts trapped inside tires the crap out of you. It takes the same amount of effort to create something extraordinary as it takes to create something ordinary.”