Julia

“And what about the other half of the election truism—that the amount of money spent on campaign finance is obscenely huge? In a typical election period that includes campaigns for the presidency, the Senate, and the House of Representatives, about $ 1 billion is spent per year—which sounds like a lot of money, unless you care to measure it against something seemingly less important than democratic elections. It is the same amount, for instance, that Americans spend every year on chewing gum.”
― Steven D. Levitt, Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything

“and beware of trying to classify people too   definitely into types; you will find that all through their youth   they will persist annoyingly in jumping from class to class, and   by pasting a supercilious label on every one you meet you are   merely packing a Jack-in-the-box that will spring up and leer at   you when you begin to come into really antagonistic contact with   the world. ”
― F. Scott Fitzgerald, This Side of Paradise

“People want to feel good. They want to be happy. Scientific studies have shown that when a person smiles or laughs, his endorphins are raised, which makes him feel good. If you are the person who makes him feel that way, he will start to like you and become more likely to do business with you.”
― Marshall Chiles, Your Presentation is a Joke: Using Humor to Maximize Your Impact

“spider ever existed. Later I would think about that spider, wondering what its message to us might have been and how it might have made a difference if we had all paid attention.”
― Marybeth Mayhew Whalen, The Things We Wish Were True