“The optimist sees the glass half full. The pessimist sees the glass half empty. The chemist sees the glass completely full, half in liquid state and half in gaseous, both of which is probably poisonous.” OptimismOptimistPessimistPessimism Hopelessness Downfall Book:Chemistry Source: Chemistry
“Workaholics are addicted to the solace they find in extreme fatigue; it’s like the high that a marathon runner might get in her last mile. I can be utterly depleted yet energized by that depletion. There’s a masochistic pride to overworking. How heavy a workload can I truly handle?” Work Author:Weike Wang
“The mark of a poor comedian is not making the other person laugh. The mark of a worse comedian is asking if the person got it.” HumorComedyComedianSense Of HumorJoke Book:Chemistry Source: Chemistry
“What are you going to do? she asks. Not dwell. Move forward. What are you really going to do? Stare at spoons.” RelationshipsMoving ForwardMoving OnBreakupsRuminating Book:Chemistry Source: Chemistry
“When i get into the best college in America, he is cutting radishes for dinner. I have just found out ten minutes ago. I am elated. He puts down the knife to shake my hand and then goes back to cutting radishes.” ExpectationsParentsAccomplishmentsFathers Book:Chemistry Source: Chemistry
“Play with your dolls for not more than half an hour, no more than fifteen minutes, no more than a second, a millisecond. If you learned math as fast as you ran outside to play, then you might be a genius. But you do not and you are not. You're a hole where knowledge goes to sleep.” PlayChildhoodExpectationsMathParentsFathers Author:Weike Wang
“Don’t just break it off for the sake of it. Don’t do something drastic just to prove a point.” DecisionBreakupDecision Making Book:Chemistry Source: Chemistry
“Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle states that to determine the precise location of a particle will only speed up the particle. The same goes for a husband: to ask him exactly where he has been all night will only make him squirm and wiggle and dodge the question more. He will only disappear again.” Infidelity Book:Chemistry Source: Chemistry
“The average Joe in America is expected to move 11.3 times in his life. Who knows about Average Jane.” SexismAverage JoeSexism In Data Book:Joan Is Okay Source: Joan Is Okay
“What look?', I would ask. That look that I owe you something. That I've wronged you in some way. A pessimist. A constant speculator. Had she'd known what American was like, she might not have immigrated.” ParentingLookWrongedImmigrant Book:Joan Is Okay Source: Joan Is Okay
“Another theory about hair, not from my mother, but from the best friend. A woman who cuts her hair drastically is set to make some decisions.” HairHaircut Book:Chemistry Source: Chemistry
“My mother has a theory about hair. It is that the longer the hair grows, the dumber a person becomes. She warns that too much hair will suck nutrients away from the head and leave it empty.” HairHaircut Book:Chemistry Source: Chemistry
“One thing he says: If you could be an emotion, it would be spite. One thing I say: If you could be an animal, it would be a sloth. But I only say that out of spite.” RelationshipsSpiteArgumentsFights Book:Chemistry Source: Chemistry
“Had she not been an immigrant, she might have enjoyed being a mom. 'Raising you took half my life,' she would say. 'You're living proof of where that half of my life went.' Chemists know this already. All elements on the periodic table decay. And in one half life, half the original element, called the parent nucleus, decays to a different element, for the daughter nucleus. No son nucleus, of course. No son could ever be a by-product of radioactive decay.” ElementsDecayDaughtersHalf LifeChemists Book:Joan Is Okay Source: Joan Is Okay
“Aluminum used to be more expensive than gold. Napoleon had an aluminum cutlery set that he only used for visiting royalty. The gold set he used everyday.” AluminumNapoleon Book:Chemistry Source: Chemistry
“We go to three parks. We walk nonstop or else she cries. The baby likes moving, especially moving at high speeds, so we go on swings. She opens one eye and looks at me with profound suspicion. What is this contraption? she asks silently, a tiny cyclops in my hands. This is a simple harmonic oscillator, I say, a pendulum; this is periodic motion. Wheeeee is the sound I think her temporal lobe wants to make" (p125)” Science Humor Book:Chemistry Source: Chemistry
“At our next session, the shrink calls this metaphor psychological warfare. You must rise above it, she says. They're just words being said many miles away. That phrase about sticks and stones and bones. But my bones are very brittle. And I am lactose intolerant.” HurtWordsMetaphorsPsychiatrists Book:Chemistry Source: Chemistry