Justin Shuttleworth

“It might be worthwhile to take a familiar question—why is there so much crime in modern society?—and stand it on its head: why isn't there a bit more crime?

After all, every one of us regularly passes up opportunities to main, steal, and defraud. The chance of going to jail—thereby losing your job, your house, and your freedom, all of which are essentially economic penalties—is certainly a strong incentive. But when it comes to crime people also respond to moral incentives (they don't want to do something they consider wrong) and social incentives (they don't want to be seen by others as doing something wrong).”
― Stephen J. Dubner and Steven Levitt

“Willie didn't have a historian's respect for the victories at Guadalcanal, Stalingrad, and Midway. The stream of news as it burbled by his mind left only a confused impression that our side was a bit ahead in the game, but making painful slow work of it. He had often wondered in his boyhood what it must have been like to live in the stirring days of Gettysburg and Waterloo; now he knew, but he didn't know that he knew. This war seemed to him different from all the others: diffuse, slogging, and empty of drama.”
― Herman Wouk, The Caine Mutiny

“Whenever I speak to a group, I always ask, “God, what is it You want me to say?” 
 
Over and over, and as if for the first time, He says, “Make sure . . .” 
 
I lean in, curious, totally forgetting the last twenty times. “Make sure of what?” 
 
“Make sure you tell them,” He pauses for effect, “that I love them.” ”
― Elizabeth Bristol, Mary Me: One Woman’s Incredible Adventure with God

“It’s more important to understand what the other person is telling you, to listen to what they’re trying to communicate, than to be in a hurry to reply.”
― Art Rios, Let's Talk: ...About Making Your Life Exciting, Easier, And Exceptional