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"Nor do I know why our country, along with Europe and America, has allowed children to be tortured in the beginning of the twenty-first century in one of the modern European ghettos, mistakenly called 'an antiterrorist operation zone.' The children of this ghetto will never forget."

Adults with children are 3.6 times more likely to tell Google they regret their decision than are adults without children.

The only medicine that can cure these plagues is safe and equal access to a classroom. The best proof of the truth of this may come from the other side, from the brutal groups that burn down schools and shoot schoolgirls in cold blood. It’s rare to hear about coordinated attacks on aid that brings medicine and food...Religious fanatics, mercenaries, and armies all need healthy recruits, after all.

"But I had never felt empowered— never believed that I had the ability and the responsibility to care for those I loved. Mamaw could preach about responsibility and hard work, about making something of myself and not making excuses. No pep talk or speech could show me how it felt to transition from seeking shelter to providing it. I had to learn that for myself, and once I did, there was no going back."

"If you must know anything, know that the hardest task is to live only once."

In Soviet times, the richest person in Russia was about six times richer than the poorest. Members of the Politburo might have had a bigger apartment, a car, and a nice dacha, but not much more than that. However, by the year 2000 the richest person had become 250,000 times richer than the poorest person. This wealth disparity was created in such a short period of time that it poisoned the psychology of the nation.

The Chechens knew it was not in their interests to carry out any terrorist attacks. Public opinion was on their side, and public opinion, both Russian and international, was more valuable to them than two or three hundred lives abruptly cut short. That was why the Chechens could not have been behind the terrorist attacks of September 1999.

Prevention of sexual assault is not a personnel or human relations issue; it’s a force protection issue.

Why, consumers demanded, if Wal-Mart had the power to lower prices, alter CD covers and influence magazine content, did it not also have the power to demand and enforce ethical labor standards from its suppliers?

Multinationals that once boasted of their role as “engines of job growth”— and used it as leverage to extract all kinds of government support— now prefer to identify themselves as engines of “economic growth.” It’s a subtle difference, but not if you happen to be looking for work.

Regardless of the impossibly contradictory message sent out by the producers of these iconic products is the same: we want our brands to be the air you breathe in— but don’t dare exhale.

As the mission of corporate executives becomes to imbue their companies with deep coolness, one can even foresee a time when the mandate of our elected leaders will be “Make the Country Cool.” In many ways, that time is already here.

Advertising is about hawking product. Branding, in its truest and most advanced incarnations, is about corporate transcendence.

Klein, Naomi (2009-11-24). No Logo (p. 19). Picador. Kindle Edition.