Ly Anheier

“The essence of humanity is our ability to move beyond instinct, to go beyond automatic reactions to our environment. It’s the ability to weigh options, to consider higher concepts such as values and principles, and then to make a deliberate choice about how to maximize what we believe is good—whether it’s love, money, or the ennobling of the soul. That’s dopamine.”
― Daniel Z. Lieberman, The Molecule of More: How a Single Chemical in Your Brain Drives Love, Sex, and Creativity—and Will Determine the Fate of the Human Race

“Most conservatives just want to be left alone. They want the freedom to make their own decisions based on their own values. Most liberals want to help people live better lives. Their goal is for everyone to be healthier, safer, and free from discrimination. But political leaders benefit from stirring up hostility between the two groups because it strengthens the allegiance of their followers. The important thing to remember is that liberals want to help people become better, conservatives want to let people be happy, and politicians want power.”
― Daniel Z. Lieberman, The Molecule of More: How a Single Chemical in Your Brain Drives Love, Sex, and Creativity—and Will Determine the Fate of the Human Race

“Poverty is often material scarcity piled on chronic pain piled on incarceration piled on depression piled on addiction—on and on it goes. Poverty isn’t a line. It’s a tight knot of social maladies. It is connected to every social problem we care about—crime, health, education, housing—and its persistence in American life means that millions of families are denied safety and security and dignity in one of the richest nations in the history of the world.”
― Matthew Desmond, Poverty, by America

“Permafrost holds a vast amount of carbon—around 1,500 billion tons are stored in the Northern Hemisphere. That carbon accumulated from the burning of fossil fuels and from dead plants and animals decomposing over thousands of years. That means around twice as much carbon is stored in permafrost as currently exists in all the Earth’s atmosphere. When the permafrost melts, everything falls apart.”
― Nicole Stott, Back to Earth: What Life in Space Taught Me About Our Home Planet―And Our Mission to Protect It