“just as energy is the basis of life itself,and ideas the source of innovation,so is innovation the vital spark of all human change,improvement and progress”

“A lot of the people who read a bestselling novel, for example, do not read much other fiction. By contrast, the audience for an obscure novel is largely composed of people who read a lot. That means the least popular books are judged by people who have the highest standards, while the most popular are judged by people who literally do not know any better. An American who read just one book this year was disproportionately likely to have read ‘The Lost Symbol’, by Dan Brown. He almost certainly liked it.”

“It is human nature to resist change... but yet, it is human nature to be innovative. Humans are contradicitve based on the fact that innovation requires change.”

“Variety is the spice of life.”

“An oft-quoted statistic from the [United Nations] reports is that the amount of literature translated into Spanish in a single year exceeds the entire corpus of what has been translated into Arabic in 1,000 years.”

“Books educate people and educated people ask awkward questions of those who govern them. The educated, in short, are considered ungovernable. Better to keep people ignorant of the past and to concentrate their minds on the utopia that lies ahead.”

“Tell them how we loved all that was beautiful.”