Quotes of the day

The young woman just told the plain, straight, truth: I want to be her friend but she doesn’t want to be mine. She went on, I’d like her to be my friend. I think I’m a good friend. Talk about the real language of a real heart. Talk about truth telling. I don’t know where my heart learned to translate it’s sentiments into such false sophistication, but after hearing this conversation, I think false sophistication is akin to lying, and I don’t think lying is the right way to get what you want.--Don Miller

It's almost as if the muni salesmen are reading from the script written by the mortgage bond guys in 2005. Remember them? They were the people who insisted that all the "talk" of a housing bubble was irresponsible.--John Carney

Two things I would strongly suggest the [Securities and Exchange] Commission look at is the 500 shareholder rule and the requirements to be a qualified and/or accredited investor to invest in privately held companies. Both of these rules directly or indirectly keep small investors, ie the general public, from investing in privately held companies. Most people do not qualify as accredited or qualified investors so their ability to invest in privately held companies is significantly restricted. And because privately held companies cannot have more than 500 shareholders, most companies prefer institutional investors who can invest large sums of money to small investors who cannot. Some of the most exciting companies to emerge in the past decade have decided to stay private for longer periods of time. There are many reasons why that is the case, but one of the reasons is that founders, Boards, and senior management realize that being public and having your employee equity go up and down every day has a cultural impact that is not always good for the organization.--Fred Wilson

Ryan has moved us off Unreality Island. He is forcing Americans to confront the implications of their choices. With a few straightforward changes, his budget could be transformed into a politically plausible center-right package that would produce a fiscally sustainable welfare state while addressing the country’s structural economic problems. I suspect the process Ryan has started will take us back toward the moderate framework the Simpson-Bowles deficit commission proposed a year ago. Great journeys begin with one bold step.--David Brooks

I don’t want to be alarmist but it is important to be sensitive to cracks in your paradigm. If you wait until it is obvious that you are wrong then it is too late.--Karl Smith

... nobody who writes what Krugman wrote should be mistaken for a person who is being reasonable.--Steve Landsburg

An Oxfam study found that when carpet makers in Bangladesh were pressured to fire their child laborers, the kids went to their next best alternatives: prostitution or starvation.--Bryan Caplan

War: What is it good for? Well, minority rights for one thing. Regardless of what you think of America’s overseas military adventures during the last century, they’ve all had positive domestic outcomes: Minority groups that have contributed to war efforts have been rewarded with expanded rights.--Robert Saldin

A longitudinal analysis suggested that shifting into more committed relationships was followed by improvements in subjective well-being. Little support was found for the assumption that people with a high level of well-being select themselves into more committed relationships.--Journal of Social and Personal Relationships

The slums of Chicago are full of first-round leaders.--Peter Jacobsen

On the train ride home—with the bailout check in your pocket—you think about how the hot tears scalded your cheek when you had to explain to your parents how bad things had gotten. You tell yourself it was all for theatrics: Crocodile tears for their sympathy. But in your most secret heart you know you weren't lying to them: You were only lying to yourself.--Ash Bennnington

Who’s going to get butt-naked right now and stand on a stool and start clapping their hands? I don’t know. Do they have that guy?--Kevin Millar

We’re going to get home right now and my wife’s going to look at me and say [Expletive], you’re 0-6. You guys stink. We all bring this [expletive] home with us, man. We care. We’ll figure it out. We have to. We don’t want to let anyone down. That’s it.--Dustin Pedroia

“I want to feel everything,” Nick [Charles] told me, and I thought I knew what he meant. I thought he meant that he wants to breathe in the mountain air, and really taste the calamari, and take in every reaction from his beautiful little daughter Giovanna. And I know that he did mean all those things and more. But I also think that he means he wants to feel EVERYTHING. He does not want to lie to himself. He wonders if he has spent too much time lying to himself. He does not want to withdraw even for moment. He knows that people are watching, and they can be inspired. He knows that his wife and daughter are with him, and every moment is precious. He knows that he has so few good days left, and as he told me: “I don’t have time for the BS. I just don’t. I’m dying.” And if we are honest with ourselves, truly and devastatingly honest, maybe we should ask: Is it really so different for any of us?--Joe Posnanski