Biography books
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"To anyone I’ve offended, I just want to say, I reinvented electric cars and I’m sending people to Mars in a rocket ship. Did you think I was also going to be a chill, normal dude?"
“My biggest problem was that I had succeeded, at least in the pursuit of building my company. Where I had failed was with the rest of my life.”
"I wanted to coach women to be the best in the world, but without subscribing to the dominant paradigm that athletes are disposable and that winning was worth just about any price."
"Between 1942 and 1944, an estimated six tons of dental gold were deposited in the vaults of the Reichsbank."
“This book is for... every immigrant who has crossed, who has tried to, who is crossing right now, and who will keep trying.”
"My biggest discovery was that you can literally re-create your life. You can redefine it. You don’t have to live in the past."
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"Over and over, the answer is the same, isn’t it? Love, love, love. The salve and the cure."
"We now have the power to control our genetic future, which is awesome and terrifying. So we must move forward cautiously and with respect for the power we’ve gained."
"Catching greenlights is about skill: intent, context, consideration, endurance, anticipation, resilience, speed, and discipline."
"When you lift up women, you lift up humanity."
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"When you think you're done, you're only at 40% of what your body is capable of doing. That's just the limit we put on ourselves."
"For me, becoming isn't about arriving somewhere or achieving a certain aim. I see it instead as forward motion, a means of evolving, a way to reach continuously toward a better self."
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"The key, though, is being aware of how you’re feeling and how you need to be feeling. It all starts with awareness."
"The minute you start compromising for the sake of massaging somebody's ego, that's it, game over."
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"My life was narrated for me by others. Their voices were forceful, emphatic, absolute. It had never occurred to me that my voice might be as strong as theirs."
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"The ability to make connections across disciplines—arts and sciences, humanities and technology —is a key to innovation, imagination, and genius."
"I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over."
"I have nothing new to teach the world. Truth and nonviolence are as old as the hills."
"Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do."
"Seek a calling. Even if you don’t know what that means, seek it. If you’re following your calling, the fatigue will be easier to bear, the disappointments will be fuel, the highs will be like nothing you’ve ever felt."
“U2’s music was never really rock ’n’ roll. Under its contemporary skin it’s opera—a big music, big emotions unlocked in the pop music of the day.”
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"The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun."
"The Blitz was not just a battle of bombs and buildings; it was a battle of wills, a test of endurance, a clash of values."
"It does not take a majority to prevail... but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men."
"I love my Mother Country, and I love my family, and I always will. I just wish, at the second-darkest moment of my life, they’d both been there for me."
"Innovation requires a long-term perspective and a willingness to invest in research and development, even when the benefits may not be immediate."
"The most important thing I have learned from space travel is that we are all in this together. We all have a responsibility to take care of our planet and to treat each other with kindness and respect."
"Extremists have shown what frightens them most: a girl with a book."
"The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science."
"The real danger is not terrorists, but a government that tries to control every aspect of our lives in the name of security."
"There's a certain kind of magic that happens when you're up there in the mountains, a sense of freedom and possibility that you just don't find anywhere else."
"The road to success is through commitment, and through the strength to drive through that commitment when it gets hard."
"I don’t know what’s the matter with people: they don’t learn by understanding; they learn by some other way–by rote, or something. Their knowledge is so fragile!"
"Where are you? Here. What time is it? Now. What are you? This moment."
"The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself."
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"Ruin is a gift. Ruin is the road to transformation."
"The Andes taught us that even in the bleakest of circumstances, there is always hope."
"The best thing you can do is choose to be in a profession that allows you to become the best version of yourself."
"Internationalizing your life and assets can provide a hedge against political instability, economic downturns, and other risks that are beyond your control."
"Our hearts beat in unison, even when separated by walls."
"I am more than my physical limitations; I am defined by my relentless spirit."
Maye Musk raised her three children to be independent, hard-working, and to do good things.
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"Diversify what you watch and consume, especially if you are white. Do not feel threatened if Black women are celebrating themselves; join in."
"Whether it’s shame, uncertainty, or a sense of unworthiness, we’ll remember that, as powerful as those emotions are, we are not powerless to them."
"The courtier's ultimate goal is to win the monarch's favor, but this can be a fickle thing. One day you're in, and the next day you're out."
"Black ops is a game of chess played in the shadows, where the board is the world and the stakes are life and death."
"I have a ridiculous fear of sharks, but I'd jump in the water in a heartbeat for an acting job."
"Josephine Baker's story is a testament to the power of the human spirit and the capacity for one person to make a difference in the world."
"When people display such rare physical gifts, there is a tendency to lift them into the realm of the superhuman, as if human magnificence is insufficient."
“The only true currency we have in life is the effect we have on those around us.”
"There are often elements of truth mixed in with false teaching. There are good ideas that help to honor God tangled with bad ideas that cause a lot of heartache."
“The newspaper owned me,’ Terry would say. ‘My life was not my own and it was accelerating very quickly."
"It would take a lifetime to understand another person. We all have complex, nuanced behaviors that make us who we are, or why we are. Acceptance is a better way to go."
"Nothing will ever undo the harm that George Tyndall inflicted on his patients, much of it life-altering for the women. But more than $1.1 billion in settlements brought them a measure of justice."
"Queen Elizabeth II has become grandmother to the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth. The longest-serving monarch in history has devoted herself to her family, her people, and the wider family of nations.”