Quotes from Walter Isaacson

Una sola alma dirige dos cuerpos —añadió—, y una sola alma los alimenta.

spend most of his time so that he may glorify God by doing good for others, and getting of good for himself." The Lord, quite conveniently, smiled

There is no real reason—other than either a metaphysical faith or a habit ingrained in the mind—to believe that nature must operate with absolute certainty. It is just as reasonable, though perhaps less satisfying, to believe that some things simply happen by chance. Certainly, there was mounting evidence that on the subatomic level this was the case.

Her work also illustrates, as Leonardo da Vinci's did, that the key to innovation is connecting a curiosity about basic science to the practical work of devising tools that can be applied to our lives—moving discoveries from lab bench to bedside.

Bismarck urged that foreign policy had to be based not on sentiment but on an assessment of strength," Kissinger wrote. That would also become one of Kissinger's guiding principles.

As a publishing magnate and then as a postmaster, he was one of the few to view America as a whole. To him, the colonies were not merely disparate entities. They were a new world with common interests and ideals.

Necessity never made a good bargain 

no acababa de entender que el conocimiento progresa por acumulación y en colaboración.

Louis XVI made the Franco-American treaties official by receiving the three commissioners at Versailles on March 20. Crowds gathered at the palace gates to catch a glimpse of the famous American, and they shouted "Vive Franklin" as his coach passed through the gold-crested gates.

Diligence is the mother of good luck 

Como Spinoza, Einstein no creía en un Dios personal que interactuaba con el hombre. Pero sí creían ambos que había un diseño divino reflejado en las elegantes leyes que gobernaban el funcionamiento del universo.

more emphasis was placed on independent thought than on punditry, and young people saw the teacher not as a figure of authority, but, alongside the student, a man of distinct personality.

Su obsesión es la pasión por el producto, la pasión por la perfección del producto

Berg to discuss the advances that were being made in gene splicing and recombinant DNA. Berg described how difficult it was to do experiments in a biology lab, where it could take weeks

When Franklin was ushered into the king's bedchamber at noon, after the official levee, Louis XVI was in a posture of prayer.

Si alguna vez surge una raza mentalmente sobrehumana —dijo en cierta ocasión Edward Teller, el creador de la bomba de hidrógeno—, sus miembros se parecerán a Johnny von Neumann.

When highbrow critics accused Time of practicing personality journalism, Luce replied that Time did not invent the genre, the Bible did.

Brief is this existence, as a fleeting visit in a strange house," he said. "The path to be pursued is poorly lit by a flickering consciousness.

slow and steady diligence is the true way to wealth.

The ideas that come from me and my team would have been completely irrelevant, nowhere, if Steve hadn't been here to push us, work with us, and drive through all the resistance to turn our ideas into products.

It is a joy for me to have a son who has inherited the main traits of my personality: the ability to rise above mere existence by sacrificing one's self through the years for an impersonal goal.

that this will be for the good of both nations," he said, giving a royal imprimatur to America's status as an independent nation.

The metaphor, though obvious, is too good to resist: Franklin, by nature, liked to find ingenious ways to calm turbulent waters. But during his time as a diplomat in England, this instinct would fail him.

How do we distinguish between traits that are true disabilities and ones that are disabilities mainly because society is not good at adapting for them?