Quotes from Sean Chercover

He said it would come down at exactly twenty-three minutes after midnight, and it did. A day is twenty-four hours. Twenty-three minutes after midnight is 24:23.

there's gonna be a riot before this thing is over. A riot, or worse. Folks don't realize how fragile the social order is, I'm telling you.

The pain was a houseguest you never invited, who doesn't know when to leave and insists on retelling the story of how you met, over and over. A trip down a specific memory lane that I'd just as soon never take again.

Doesn't matter if you run a barbershop, pharmacy, or gas station, remaining independent in today's America is an uphill slog and the hill gets steeper with each passing year.

many people, not just Americans, make the mistake of taking it neat. He explained how Scotch is made, saying, 'Fer heaven's sake, we add bloody water to it with great violence before we put it in the bloody bottle.' He explained how adding a splash of water opens the spirit up, unfolding layers of complexity on the tongue.

Papa Legba was a prominent loa in voodoo mythology. Guardian of the Crossroads, facilitator of communication between the material and spirit worlds,

A dog doesn't understand mathematics, but that doesn't mean mathematics doesn't exist.

I'm humble enough to acknowledge that I don't know the secrets of the universe. I'm no longer chasing faith. I'm chasing truth—and that means accepting uncertainty, accepting that the universe is bigger and stranger than we can even know. Is it possible that the universe acts with intention, with intelligence? Science is learning that it's not only possible, it's likely.

that's what religion is. A philosophy of coping. It may bring comfort to the dispossessed, but comfort isn't good for the dispossessed. The dispossessed need to stay pissed off so things can change for the better.

look at the villains and con artists running for high office. And winning. They ain't runnin' as public servants, they're runnin' as saviors. And one thing has always been true—every time people think they're voting for a savior, they end up electing a tyrant.

There are no good guys in this game. There's only bad guys, and less bad guys.

What I believe is we're able to push the boundaries of our knowledge only so long as we keep our focus on phenomena itself, rejecting metaphysical conclusions and false certainty, however comforting they may be.

WAFFLE HOUSE Two words that spelled oasis across the Southland.

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. It was the third of Arthur C. Clarke's three laws of prediction.

how he hated the word "homeland"; it sounded just one step shy of "fatherland"—

Look, there's no debate among microbiologists—a pandemic is coming. Sooner or later one of these bugs is going to be stronger and faster than we are, and the way we continue to misuse antibiotics, it'll be sooner.

And truthfully, when microbiologists talk amongst ourselves, off the record after a few glasses of wine, the optimists admit their optimism is more wishful thinking than science." "What do the pessimists do?" "The pessimists just keep drinking until they pass out.

You know what the Jews say: Man plans and God laughs.

Today is a good day to die. But I've decided to stay alive until tomorrow