John Cates

John’s Bookshelves

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John is Currently Reading

John Cates is currently reading

Looking for a Ship

by John McPhee

bookshelves: currently-reading, nautical

Reading for the 3rd time

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— Nov 09, 2026 07:29PM

Oct 21, 2026 05:42PM

John’s Quotes

“I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.”
― Thomas A. Edison

tags: edison, failure, inspirational, paraphrased

42445 likes

“Surround yourself with people who make you happy. People who make you laugh, who help you when you’re in need. People who genuinely care. They are the ones worth keeping in your life. Everyone else is just passing through.”
― Karl Marx

tags: genuinely-care

680 likes

“Americans are generally incapable of perceiving class differences among blacks and are quick to ascribe antisocial underclass behavior to all African Americans.”
― Leon Dash, Rosa Lee: A Mother and Her Family in Urban America

1 likes

“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.”
― Isaac Asimov

tags: anti-intellectualism, cult, culture, democracy, ignorance, intellectual, political, politics, united-states, willful-ignorance

2509 likes

“She was learning, quite late, what many people around her appeared to have known since childhood – that life can be perfectly satisfying without major achievements.”
― Alice Munro, Too Much Happiness: Stories

146 likes

More of John’s quotes…