“We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Arabia. Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, scientists greater than Newton. We know this because the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively exceeds the set of actual people. In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here.”
― The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century
― The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century
“This is good for my ego after, like, two years of seeing Italian guys in pink sweaters and orange pants and, like, pulling it off. You know what I’m saying?”
― The Imperfectionists
― The Imperfectionists
“Life is struggle.” I believe that within that quote lies the most important lesson in entrepreneurship: Embrace the struggle.”
― The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers
― The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers
“The sharply precise divisions and boundaries, together with the fact that—wind and your more exotic-type spins aside—balls can be made to travel in straight lines only, make textbook tennis plane geometry. It is billiards with balls that won’t hold still. It is chess on the run. It is to artillery and airstrikes what football is to infantry and attrition.”
― A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again: Essays and Arguments
― A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again: Essays and Arguments
“Think I’ll just buff up the silver,’ he announced, loud enough for her to hear and do something about him if she wanted.”
― A Delicate Truth
― A Delicate Truth
Espionage Aficionados
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Pssst--buddy. Dig spy stories? Foreign intrigue? Conspiracies? Join up with.. We got LeCarre, Deighton; Follett; Littell; Ambler; Furst; Silva a ...more
Peter’s 2025 Year in Books
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