To be a writer is to have a certain kind of sensitivity to the world, to be able to see what others do not see, to hear what others do not hear.

Never invest in any idea you can't illustrate with a crayon.

I have a vivid memory of what happened， and it was not what I expected. I expected to be applauded for my cleverness and arithmetic skills. "Jeff， you're so smart. You had to have made some tricky estimates， figure out the number of minutes in a year and do some division." That's not what happened. Instead， my grandmother burst into tears. I sat in the backseat and did not know what to do. While my grandmother sat crying， my grandfather， who had been driving in silence， pulled over onto the shoulder of the highway. He got out of the car and came around and opened my door and waited for me to follow. Was I in trouble？ My grandfather was a highly intelligent， quiet man. He had never said a harsh word to me， and maybe this was to be the first time？ Or maybe he would ask that I get back in the car and apologize to my grandmother. I had no experience in this realm with my grandparents and no way to gauge what the consequences might be. We stopped beside the trailer. My grandfather looked at me， and after a bit of silence， he gently and calmly said， "Jeff， one day you'll understand that it's harder to be kind than clever."

这就是为什么我们如此在乎事业和成就，以及看重金钱和物质的原因。我们时常被告知我们处在一个物质挂帅的时代，我们都是贪婪的人。我并不认为我们特别看重物质，而是活在一个物质能带来大量情感反馈的时代。

We are all walking archives of evolutionary history.

The more we study the more we discover our ignorance.

如果我们忽视海洋的呼声，它的沉默将是我们最大的失败。