“If half-black Barack Obama had decided years ago to call himself white - which his genes certainly entitled him to do - his story would have carried very different meaning. If millions of part-black people had followed him into whiteness, then the N.A.A.C.P. would be in true crisis.” PeopleIfsYearsDifferentStoriesWould BeBlackWhiteHalfMillionsYears AgoDecidedCrisisBarackBlack PeopleGenesEntitledWhitenessDifferent Meanings Author:Eric Liu
“Things that I felt absolutely sure of but a few years ago, I do not believe now. This thought makes me see more clearly how foolish it would be to expect all men to agree with me.” MenInspirationalYearsBelieveWould BeBeliefFeltGreatnessYears AgoAgreeFoolish Author:Jim Rohn
“I wrote my first play at the age of 10, 55 years ago, and I've always found it a fantastic relief to imagine I know what things would be like from the point of view of other individuals and to send out signals from where I actually am not. Playwrights never need to write from the place where they are.” KnowsNeedsWritingYearsFirstsPlayWould BeAgeFoundIndividualViewsImagineYears AgoPoint Of ViewFantasticReliefSignalsPlaywright Author:Wallace Shawn
“Medical knowledge and technical savvy are biodegradable. The sort of medicine that was practiced in Boston or New York or Atlanta fifty years ago would be as strange to a medical student or intern today as the ceremonial dance of a !Kung San tribe would seem to a rock festival audience in Hackensack.” InspirationalYearsSeemsWould BeTodayAudienceRocksNew YorkStudentsStrangeYears AgoMedicineDanceMedicalFiftyTribesBostonFestivalsAtlantaSavvyBiodegradableMedical Knowledge Author:Lewis Thomas
“Do not think of knocking out another person's brains because he differs in opinion from you. It would be as rational to knock yourself on the head because you differ from yourself ten years ago.” ThinkingYearsPersonsWould BeBrainOpinionTenYears AgoRationalKnockingConflicting Opinions Book:Thoughts Source: Thoughts
“So many things were testing his faith. There was the Bible, of course, but the Bible was a book, and so were Bleak House, Treasure Island, Ethan Frome and The Last of the Mohicans. Did it then seem probable, as he had once overheard Dunbar ask, that the answers to riddles of creation would be supplied by people too ignorant to understand the mechanics of rainfall? Had Almighty God, in all His infinite wisdom, really been afraid that men six thousand years ago would succeed in building a tower to heaven?” PeopleMenYearsBookSeemsWould BeLastsCoursesAsksHouseHeavenAnswersCreationBuildingThousandSucceedSixYears AgoInfiniteTreasureIgnorantIslandsAlmightyTowersThousand YearsMechanicTestingRiddleBleakAlmighty GodRainfallYossarianTreasure IslandBleak House Author:Joseph Heller
“And I thought, eight years ago, when I began carefully charting the progress of American Gods, nervously dipping my toes into the waters of blogging, would I have imagined a future in which, instead of recording the vicissitudes of bringing a book into the world, I would be writing about not-even-interestingly missing cups of cold camomile tea? And I thought, yup. Sounds about right. Happy Eighth birthday, blog.” WorldWritingYearsBookWould BeSoundWaterProgressMissingColdYears AgoEightCupsTeaToesBlogsBloggingVicissitudesAmerican GodsCharting Author:Neil Gaiman
“If Jesus had been killed twenty years ago, Catholic school children would be wearing little electric chairs around their necks instead of crosses.” IfsYearsChildrenLittlesWould BeSchoolJesusChristJesus ChristYears AgoCrossesTwentiesCatholicNecksChairsCatholicismElectricDeath PenaltyAggravationAnti ReligiousCatholic SchoolAnti ChristianElectric Chair Author:Lenny Bruce
“If I existed 200 years ago, all the other farmers in my community would be like, 'That guy is worthless! He's sitting on a rock, jumping up like a frog, coming up with weird concepts and ideas, making faces, and combing his hair into a giant pastry.' It's a good thing I was born in this century, when superfluous television seems to be part of the economy.” IfsYearsIdeasSeemsWould BeFacesGuyBornCommunityEconomyRocksCenturyTelevisionHairSittingConceptsYears AgoGood ThingsGiantsFarmersWorthlessJumpingThat GuyFrogsSuperfluousPastries Author:Conan O'Brien
“He had never liked October. Ever since he had first lay in the autumn leaves before his grandmother's house many years ago and heard the wind and saw the empty trees. It had made him cry, without a reason. And a little of that sadness returned each year to him. It always went away with spring. But, it was a little different tonight. There was a feeling of autumn coming to last a million years. There would be no spring. ("The October Game")” YearsFirstsLittlesMadeDifferentReasonFeelingsWould BeLastsGamesHouseMillionsSawsHeardTreeSadnessCryWindSpringYears AgoEmptyLaysTonightGrandmotherAutumnOctoberAutumn Leaves Author:Ray Bradbury
“I ordered a coffee and a little something to eat and savored the warmth and dryness. Somewhere in the background Nat King Cole sang a perky tune. I watched the rain beat down on the road outside and told myself that one day this would be twenty years ago.” YearsLittlesWould BeKingsOne DayBeatsRainYears AgoTwentiesCoffeeBackgroundsTunesWarmthPerky Author:Bill Bryson
“You know what I was thinking about on my way home? How different my life would be if you’d made that gash a little deeper. Or how different yours would be if I’d vaulted myself off a roof nine years ago. Do you ever think about things like that? Like, if either you or I wouldn’t have made it, where would the other one be right now? It was something I thought about all the time: how death changes every remaining moment for those still living.” IfsThinkingKnowsWayYearsLittlesMadeStillsDifferentMomentsHomeWould BeRight NowYears AgoDeeperNineMade ItMy WayRoofNine YearsWay Home Author:Tiffanie DeBartolo
“The famous passage from her book is often erroneously attributed to the inaugural address of Nelson Mandela. About the misattribution Williamson said, "Several years ago, this paragraph from A Return to Love began popping up everywhere, attributed to Nelson Mandela's 1994 inaugural address. As honored as I would be had President Mandela quoted my words, indeed he did not. I have no idea where that story came from, but I am gratified that the paragraph has come to mean so much to so many people.” PeopleYearsMeanSaidBookIdeasStoriesWould BeFearPresidentReturnYears AgoNo IdeaAddressesPassagesHonoredParagraphFear NotNelsonInauguralPoppingInaugural AddressDeepest FearOur Deepest FearMandela S Author:Marianne Williamson
“She didn’t understand why it was happening,” he said. “I had to tell her she would die. Her social worker said I had to tell her. I had to tell her she would die, so I told her she was going to heaven. She asked if I would be there, and I said that I would not, not yet. But eventually, she said, and I promised that yes, of course, very soon. And I told her that in the meantime we had great family up there that would take care of her. And she asked me when I would be there, and I told her soon. Twenty-two years ago.” IfsYearsSaidTwoWould BeCareDiesCoursesHeavenSocialHappeningsYears AgoTwentiesWorkersTake CareTwo YearsSocial WorkerGreat FamilyHazel GraceTwenty TwoTwo Years AgoGoing To HeavenHazel Grace Lancaster Author:John Green
“I think back to the day I drove Michelle and a newborn Malia home from the hospital nearly 11 years ago - crawling along, miles under the speed limit, feeling the weight of my daughter's future resting in my hands. I think about the pledge I made to her that day: that I would give her what I never had - that if I could be anything in life, I would be a good father. I knew that day that my own life wouldn't count for much unless she had every opportunity in hers.” IfsThinkingGivingYearsMadeFeelingsHomeHandsWould BeFatherOpportunityMy OwnDadLimitsDaughterYears AgoWeightSpeedMilesIf I CouldMy DaughterHospitalsPledgeMy Own LifeFathers DayNewbornCrawlingAnything In LifeGood FatherSpeed Limits Author:Barack Obama
“If we ever establish contact with intelligent aliens living on a planet around a distant star ... They would be made of similar atoms to us. They could trace their origins back to the big bang 13.7 billion years ago, and they would share with us the universe's future. However, the surest common culture would be mathematics.” IfsYearsMadeBigsWould BeScienceCultureUniverseStarsCommonSharePlanetsFutureYears AgoIntelligentMathematicsBillionsContactAliensAtomsBangsLiving OnCommon Culture Author:Martin Rees
“2,000 years ago one man got nailed to a tree for saying how great it would be if everyone was nice to each other for a change.” IfsMenYearsWould BeNiceTreeYears AgoOne ManFridayGood Friday Author:Douglas Adams
“When I began my career as a cosmologist some twenty years ago, I was a convinced atheist. I never in my wildest dreams imagined that one day I would be writing a book purporting to show that the central claims of Judeo-Christian theology are in fact true, that these claims are straightforward deductions of the laws of physics as we now understand them. I have been forced into these conclusions by the inexorable logic of my own special branch of physics.” WritingYearsHas BeensBookFactsShowsDreamWould BeChristianLawScienceMy OwnCareersAtheismSpecialOne DayYears AgoLogicScientistClaimsTwentiesAtheistConvincedPhysicsTheologyConclusionBranchesWriting A BookStraightforwardTheismDeductionsLaws Of PhysicsIf There Is A GodInexorableWildest DreamsScience PhysicsGod And ScienceChristian TheologyScience GodChristian ScienceScience Books Author:Frank J. Tipler
“My father was and is a great journalist. Thirty years ago, I was studying broadcasting in college, and the problem was I wasn't nearly as good as my father. I wasn't as quick or as smart as my old man, and I realized it would be a long time before I was ever going to be, and I decided to do something else.” MenYearsLongProblemWould BeFatherStudyCollegeLong TimeSmartYears AgoDecidedI RealizedJournalistThirtyOld ManThirty YearsBroadcasting Author:George Clooney
“What a story that would make! How many men and women go through the same rivers, menaced by the same sharp clichés, the same jagged dangers that have threatened us! If the idea stands up, I thought, it would be worth uncovering the typewriter! How Richard-years-ago would have wanted to know: What happens when we set off searching for a soulmate who doesn't exist, and find her?” IfsKnowsMenYearsIdeasStoriesHappensWould BeWantedDangerMen And WomenYears AgoRiversThreatenedSoulmateTypewritersUncovering Author:Richard Bach