John Vorhaus

"There's a deeper reason, though, for not striving for excellence, ... and it has to do with how we view ourselves and our endeavors in this world. Many of us recognize that not trying is a reasonable excuse for not succeeding. That is, if we don't give something our best effort, we can always point to that fact as the basis for poor results. If, on the other hand, we give... everything we've got and still don't win, well, that's a fairly bitter pill to swallow.... I don't buy this defeatist attitude."

"The controlling idea... in so many facets of human interaction is: If you can't be right, be loud; if you're loud enough long enough, you will appear to be right."

"[That] is the essence of poker: making tricky decisions based on incomplete information."

"The universe... doesn't owe us anything but an education, and it gives us lessons every day."

"To an asshole, the whole world looks dark."

"Go off in all directions at once; you're bound to get somewhere somehow."

"I've lost myself in my work many times. If you love what you do, this can be a Zen thing, where past and future recede to a vanishing point and leave nothing but the perfect vexing, challenging, beguiling now."