Brian Smith

“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

“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

“football: it might not be enough to just love your job. You had to want to live in the world the job created. Working with people you like, a tribe with a common goal, would make your professional life far happier than any accolade, salary, or a company’s prestige could. You need to do the work you love, at a place and with people you love. You have to feel—Brady repeatedly returned to this word—“appreciated.”
― Seth Wickersham, It's Better to Be Feared: The New England Patriots Dynasty and the Pursuit of Greatness

“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