Quotes from Michael Lewis

By then the question of whether God exists left me cold. But the question of why people believe God exists I found really fascinating. I was not interested in right and wrong. But I was very interested in indignation. Now that's a psychologist!

male astronauts had been fitted with condom catheters, but these were always threatening to leak or even burst and obviously wouldn't work for women. To everyone's relief, a NASA engineer created an extra-absorbent polymer and worked it into a diaper that could be worn by all. (In the bargain he'd anticipated

Financial markets are a collection of arguments.

Whatever was happening in the White House was happening without the benefit of the people Bossert felt qualified to advise the president. "The chains had been broken," he said. "None of the people who had been involved in the last fifteen years of thinking about pandemics were in the conversation. They were deep state.

When they heard that Joel Leftwich, the guy Trump wanted to lead his USDA transition team, had been a lobbyist for PepsiCo, they brought in a mini-fridge stocked with Pepsis. That was just the way they were at the USDA. They didn't think: How the fuck can people paid to push sugary drinks on American kids be let anywhere near the federal department with the most influence on what American kids eat? Instead they thought: I hear he's a nice guy!

For a fee, the exchange will 'flash' information about buy and sell orders for just a few fractions of a second before the information is made publicly available.

The smaller the sample size, the more likely that it is unrepresentative of the wider population...people can be taught the correct rule, perhaps even with little difficulty. The point remains that people do not follow the correct rule, when left to their own devices.

was going to come from to pay for the transition team. Christie explained that Trump could either pay for it himself or take it out of campaign funds. Trump didn't want to pay for it himself. He didn't want to take it out of campaign funds, either, but he agreed, grudgingly

It was widely believed that a small, bald man in a grubby room in Moscow started all rumors to wreak havoc on our Western market-based economy.

Telling a story that is consistent with everything that happened before

Hollywood would much prefer the author be dead, so that they can buy the book and do what they want to do with it.

Why pay $20 million to Harrison Ford? I don't even understand that. They think they have to do it... If someone puts a price on himself, that suggests he is irreplaceable, then he better find somewhere else to work.

The Red Sox are the local scapegoats. It's hard enough to play baseball without being the local scapegoat too.

The Red Sox are a curious thing because so much here is media driven. You can't go fire half your scouts here because they are all friends with the local reporters. Your life is going to hell in the papers.

I think that fans are always looking for someone to blame. Wouldn't it be nice if they looked in the mirror?

The only thing history teaches us, a wise man once said, is that history doesn't teach us anything.

There's no point in arguing with partisan supporters. Their views are their identity. Nothing you can tell the most phlegmatic follower.

Baseball is this intense subculture that actually doesn't speak very much for the larger culture.

The pleasure of rooting for Goliath is that you can expect to win. The pleasure of rooting for David is that, while you don't know what to expect, you stand at least a chance of being inspired.

A banking system is an act of faith: it survives only for as long as people believe it will.

The arrangement bore the same relation to actual finance as fantasy football bears to the NFL.

Those who say don't know, those who know don't say

The sports world is an echo chamber. All it takes is one quote from a general manager and a thousand sports columns bloom.

People who think they know what they are talking about when they talk about baseball include the announcers and all of the sports press - no matter how much evidence you present them to the contrary they will continue to think that what they think is right.