A chess genius is a human being who focuses vast, little-understood mental gifts and labors on an ultimately trivial human enterprise.
The reason grandparents and grandchildren get along so well is that they have a common enemy.
Sitting in the back of that Hummer, my head in a hood, my hands lashed behind my back, lurching back and forth while the bruises swelled up on my head, terrorism suddenly felt a lot riskier.
It is nobler to declare oneself wrong than to insist on being right - especially when one is right.
A moment later, I caught my breath, but I didn't say anything.
You should not live one way in private, another in public.
'Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today.' Under the influence of this pestilent morality, I am forever letting tomorrow's work slop backwards into today's, and doing painfully and nervously today what I could do quickly and easily tomorrow.