Brian Smith

“Empathy, he finally assured me, “will be one of the strongest things about Trump. “When I’m in that position,” he continued, “when we have horrible hurricanes, all kinds of horrible things happen, you’ve got to have empathy.” Trump then returned to watching himself on the flat screen.”
― Mark Leibovich, Thank You For Your Servitude: Donald Trump's Washington and the Price of Submission

“We live in hope—that life will get better, and more importantly that it will go on, that love will survive even though we will not. And between now and then, we are here because we’re here because we’re here because we’re here. I give auld lang syne five stars.”
― John Green, The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet

“We have an America we can dream about again,” he said with a note of astonishment, as if this should have been totally obvious.”
― Roger Bennett, Reborn in the USA: An Englishman's Love Letter to His Chosen Home – The #1 NYT Bestseller: A Hilarious Coming-of-Age Memoir

“Their meeting wasn’t some meaningless diplomatic reception. It began with Halifax mistaking Hitler for a footman and almost handing him his coat. And then Hitler was Hitler for five hours: sulking, shouting, digressing, denouncing. He talked about how much he hated the press. He talked about the evils of communism. Halifax listened to the performance with what another British diplomat at the time called a “mixture of astonishment, repugnance, and compassion.”
― Malcolm Gladwell, Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don’t Know