THANKS GO TO my mom and my sister. My Chicago family. All my friends.
This book has been percolating in the back of my brain for years, and I'm grateful to Jan Johnson, Michael Kerber, and Gary Baddeley for letting me make it happen. Thanks also to Kim Ehart, Bonni Hamilton, Sylvia Hopkins, Matt Staggs, and everyone else at Red Wheel/Weiser and Disinfo.
A tip of the hat to everyone who told me their favorite quotes, including Erika Roush, Laura Folkwein, Eran Levin, Brooke Anderson, Will Cordeiro, Cybele Knowles, Bryan Kromenacker, Jan, Gary, and Kim. Merci beaucoup to fellow quote-mongers Sy Safransky of The Sun, Maria Popova of BrainPickings.org, Lewis Lapham of Lapham's Quarterly, Wikiquote, and, of course, John Bartlett.
Major thanks are due to everyone who makes the printed Flash Wisdom and gets it into your hands: the paper-makers, the truck drivers, the printers, the distributors and wholesalers, the booksellers. . . . And of course the many trees who gave their all.
Most crucial of all: An endlessly deep debt of gratitude to every person quoted in these pages.