I am not a runner.  I run, but my short infrequent jaunts pale next to the ultramarathoners profiled in Born to Run.  I’m not in the same league or the same sport for that matter.  These super-athletes run up mountains, crisscross deserts, and traverse deep canyons for miles at a time.  By the time they reach 26.2 miles, they’re just getting warmed up.  That said, if there is ever a book that will inspire someone to get off the couch, lace up their shoes, and attempt a 50-mile fun run, this is it. 

“That was when I realized that you retire on your memories.  When you’re too frail to do much of anything else, you can still look back on the life you’ve lived and experience immense pride, joy, and the bittersweet feeling of nostalgia.”

“But remember that your goal isn’t to maximize wealth but rather to maximize experiences.” 

Short answer? Yes!

“To release the telegram meant risking the code; but to withhold the telegram meant throwing away the greatest triumph possession of the code could bring.”

“In practical terms, a limit embracing attitude toward time means organizing your days with the understanding that you definitely won’t have time for everything you want to do – and so, at the very least, you can stop bearing yourself up for failing.”

“When you enter a mindset, you enter a new world.  In one world – the world of fixed traits – success is about proving you’re smart or talented.  Validating yourself.  The other – the world of changing qualities – it’s about stretching yourself to learn something new.  Developing yourself.”

“If parents want to give their children a gift, the best thing they can do is teach their children to love challenges, to be intrigued by mistakes, enjoy effort, seek new strategies and keep learning.”

“If he was capable any longer of rethinking his policies, he gave no evidence of it.  And because of his power, of course, there was nothing that could force him to rethink.”

“Changing realities could have changed his thinking but he was utterly insulated from reality by the sycophancy of his yes men.”

“Comforts and conveniences are great but the haven’t always moved the ball downfield in our most important metric, happy, healthy years.”

“Modern humans may have an unmet need to do what’s truly difficult for us.”

Pride and Prejudice should be on every Gentleman’s reading list – not just because it is a classic, funny, historically insightful or choked full of great characters.  But as a father, it reinforces the fact that my actions matter.  What I do impacts the trajectory and attitudes of my children more than I imagine.  But it is heartening to know that even two hundred years ago another father was messing up his kids.  We can learn from his errors. 

“Project Apollo remains the last great act this country has undertaken out of a sense of optimism, of looking forward to the future…It is the sense of purpose we felt then that seems as distant as the moon itself.”

“Instead of letting the moon be the gateway to the future, we have let it become a brief chapter in our history.  The irony is that in turning away from space exploration – whose progress is intimately linked to the future of mankind – we were rob ourselves of the long term vision we desperately need.  Any society, if it is to flourish instead of merely survive, must transcend its own limits.”

Franklin’s life is worth examining because he didn’t go quietly into the night and found new ways to use his talents and intellect.  He reinvented himself constantly and in each of life’s chapters, found purpose.  And that is undoubtedly one of the things Franklin would be most proud of, that he stayed useful and was effective until the end. 

“The bishop went up to him and said quietly, ‘Don’t forget, never forget, you promised to use this money to become an honest man.’  Jean Valjean, who had no recollection of having made any promise, remained dumbfounded.  The bishop had dwelled on these words as he said them.  He went on with a kind of solemnity, “Jean Valjean, my brother, you’re no longer owned by evil but by good.  It’s your soul I’m buying.  I’m redeeming it from dark thoughts and the spirit of perdition, and I’m giving it to God.’

 “Here is the reality: in practically every high skill profession, decline sets in somewhere between one’s late thirties and early fifties.”

“Devote the back half of your life serving others with your wisdom.  Get old sharing the things you believe are most important.”

I am forever amazed at how a 1,000 page book on 12th Century cathedral building has lived in my head rent free for this long.

It has something everyone – history, conflict, romance, violence, murder, mystery, religion, politics, philosophy, and yes, even medieval architecture.    

Kids are astute and pick up more than we’ll ever know.  And we’ll never know exactly when they are watching and what they will absorb.     

“There are some men in this world who are born to do our unpleasant jobs for us.  Your father’s one of them.”

 “… but before I can live with other folks I’ve got to live with myself.  The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.”

 “As the water flashed with twisting tails and dorsal fins, the boys resolved to stay calm, clamping their hands over their ears against the erupting screams, but this resolve vanished when one of the boys was dragged through the water like a fisherman’s bobber tugged by a big catfish.  The victim, clenched in the uplifted jaws of a shark, was pushed at waist level through the surf, screaming.  Others disappeared quietly without a trace, their life vests shooting back to the surface empty, the straps in shreds.  As the excited sharks grew more agitated, the attacks intensified in ferocity.”

“We must take sides.  Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim.  Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”

“Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past.”

Look long and hard at the reality you believe.  If you dogmatically subscribe to the beliefs of one party or one person, then you may be part of the problem.  Think for yourself.   

“Billy, with all his memories of the future, knew that the city would be smashed to smithereens and then burned – in about 30 more days.  He knew, too, that most of the people watching him would soon be dead.”