A. J. Jacobs Quotes

My immune system has always been overly welcoming of germs. It's far too polite, the biological equivalent of a southern hostess inviting y'all nice microbes to stay awhile and have some artichoke dip.

A. J. Jacobs

• Nice
• Health
• Southern

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Quotes to Explore

• I believe in the Prince of Peace. I believe that War is Murder. I believe that armies and navies are at bottom the tinsel and braggadocio of oppression and wrong, and I believe that the wicked conquest of weaker and darker nations by nations whiter and stronger but foreshadows the death of that strength.

  

  W. E. B. Du Bois
  • Believe
  • War
  • Death

• Art is about play and about transcendent meanings, not reducible to politics.

  

  Rachel Kushner
  • Art
  • Play
  • Politics

• Phrases that have historical significance or become headlines don't just magically appear in the moment. They are mindfully planned.

  

  Nancy Duarte
  • Moment
  • Become
  • Significance

• I didn't make any friends in New York by insisting on moving the league headquarters to Cincinnati. The fact was that my son Bill was in school. His mother had passed away, and I didn't want to take the boy away from his school and to a strange city.

  

  Warren Giles
  • School
  • Friends
  • Mother

• I started playing badminton when I was probably of eight years and ever since have been playing. I didn't go to university.

  

  Rajiv Ouseph
  • Years
  • Go
  • University

• Because the nights bring the threat of invasion and terror to the villages, thousands of children in northern Uganda have become night commuters, leaving the nightmare of capture behind for the safety of the city.

  

  Sam Childers
  • Children
  • Night
  • City

• The clever cat eats cheese and breathes down rat holes with baited breath.

  

  W. C. Fields
  • Cat
  • Down
  • Clever

• Whenever a film allows you to think and feel and take it beyond the moment, I think it's achieved something. And 'Funny Games' does that.

  

  Naomi Watts
  • Think
  • Funny
  • Moment

• I'm tired of malicious articles slandering me.

  

  Barbra Streisand
  • Tired
  • Articles
  • Malicious

• I'm not slim. I'm a curvy girl: I've got thighs and a bum. I don't mind baring the fact that I've got a bit of cellulite because everybody has. I find it off-putting when everybody on telly is the same size or looks the same build. For me, it's important for people to watch someone normal.

  

  Vicky McClure
  • People
  • Important
  • Mind

• I became a Communist by studying capitalist political economy, and when I had some understanding of that problem, it actually seemed to me so absurd, so irrational, so inhuman, that I simply began to elaborate on my own formulas for production and distribution.

  

  Fidel Castro
  • Political
  • Problem
  • Understanding

• What was bizarre, when I was younger, I never watched TV. I would rather watch a movie 100 times than to watch a TV show, just to find another nuance. I can't tell you how many times I've watched 'On the Waterfront', just to find a flaw so that I can learn and try to improve my thing.

  

  Vin Diesel
  • Movie
  • Learn
  • Find

• College isn't in everyone's hearts. I am living proof, though, that school doesn't mess up your plans. It gives you more experiences to write about.

  

  J. Cole
  • School
  • College
  • Experiences

• For the doubters out there, of course I was going to have help from Penguin's editorial team in telling my story, which I talked about from the beginning.

  

  Zoe Sugg
  • Help
  • Team
  • Beginning

• Flyaway, problem hair is the enemy of feminism, and was probably invented by the Man to crush Susan Sontag.

  

  Caitlin Moran
  • Man
  • Problem
  • Hair

• Now, I guess, people want stars. People are trying to invent stars.

  

  Oscar Robertson
  • People
  • Trying
  • Stars

• I love working in New York.

  

  Ian Mckellen
  • Love
  • Working
  • New York

• I only know what I read in the papers.

  

  Pat Nixon
  • Know
  • Read
  • Only

• Well, I don't think I've ever consciously come up with tricks and tools to, kind of, hide. I do think I'm a bit more vigilant, in terms of safety issues and things. And sometimes it is kind of nice to try to hold onto your anonymity.

  

  Calista Flockhart
  • Up
  • Think
  • Nice

• Decades ago, women suffered through horrifying back-alley abortions. Or, they used dangerous methods when they had no other recourse. So when the Republican Party launched an all-out assault on women's health, pushing bills to limit access to vital services, we had to ask: Why is the GOP trying to send women back... to the back alley?

  

  Lisa Edelstein
  • Women
  • Trying
  • Why

• I prefer the old masters, by which I mean John Ford, John Ford, and John Ford.

  

  Orson Welles
  • Mean
  • Old
  • Masters

• My acting has always been in the world of comedy, but in my writing, other than writing sketches, I really am drawn to the balance between comedy and drama. I like things that sort of toe that line of one minute you're in this emotional space and then all of the sudden something happens.

  

  Jim Rash
  • World
  • Writing
  • Comedy

• My immune system has always been overly welcoming of germs. It's far too polite, the biological equivalent of a southern hostess inviting y'all nice microbes to stay awhile and have some artichoke dip.

  

  A. J. Jacobs
  • Nice
  • Health
  • Southern