All quotes from
JD's book
Very few people,
Mamaw told me, appreciate how unimportant your fist is when it comes to hitting
someone.
Regular church
attendees commit fewer crimes, are in better health, live longer, make more
money, drop out of high school less frequently, and finish college more
frequently than those who don't attend church at all. MIT economist Jonathan Gruber even found that
the relationship was causal: it's not just that people who happen to live
successful lives also go to church, it's that church seems to promote good
habits.
There's something
powerful about realizing that you've undersold yourself -- that somehow your
mind confused lack of effort for inability.
One consequence of
isolation is seeing standard metrics of success as not just unattainable but as
the property of people not like us.
Social mobility
isn't just about money and economics, it's about a lifestyle change. The wealthy and powerful aren't just wealthy
and powerful; they follow a different set of norms and mores. When you go from working-class to
professional-class, almost everything about your old life becomes unfashionable
at best or unhealthy at worst.
