Mary

“Doomed every four years to disappointment when a demigod turns out to have feet of clay, when the most powerful man in the world turns out not to have much power to change the world, the American people none the less never lose faith in the presidential religion.”
― Matt Ridley, The Evolution of Everything: How New Ideas Emerge

“When fanatics say, “Obey our religious laws even if you’re not a believer,” the immediate response must be to break whatever religious laws they are talking about.”
― David Silverman, Fighting God: An Atheist Manifesto for a Religious World

“We learn a great deal from our failures in math and science.”
― Barbara Oakley, A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science

“The advice that you must change your environment—for example, by eliminating negative people and news—is an admission that there may in fact be a “real world” out there that is utterly unaffected by our wishes. In the face of this terrifying possibility, the only “positive” response is to withdraw into one’s own carefully constructed world of constant approval and affirmation, nice news, and smiling people.”
― Barbara Ehrenreich, Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America