Lessons in Chemistry

by Bonnie Garmus

while musical prodigies are always celebrated, early readers aren’t.

while we may be born into families, it doesn’t necessarily mean we belong to them.”

“One thing I’ve learned, Calvin: people will always yearn for a simple solution to their complicated problems. It’s a lot easier to have faith in something you can’t see, can’t touch, can’t explain, and can’t change, rather than to have faith in something you actually can.” She sighed. “One’s self, I mean.” She tensed her stomach.

“When I was a kid,” Calvin said quietly, “I used to tell myself every day was new. That anything could happen.”

Physical suffering, he’d long ago learned, bonds people in a way that everyday life can’t.

“I have not failed,” they’d endlessly quote Edison, “I’ve just found ten thousand ways that won’t work.”

Which may be an acceptable thing to say in science but is absolutely the wrong thing to say to a roomful of investors looking for an immediate, high-ticket, chronic treatment for cancer.

No surprise. Idiots make it into every company. They tend to interview well.

Failures, by their very nature, had a way of being unforgettable.

In fact, most people spoke only one—maybe two—unless they were something called Swiss and spoke eight.

Like most stupid people, Mr. Sloane wasn’t smart enough to know just how stupid he was.

a single mother, the lead scientist on what had to be the most unscientific experiment of all time: the raising of another human being.

“Humans need reassurance,” Wakely wrote back. “They need to know others survived the hard times. And, unlike other species, which do a better job of learning from their mistakes, humans require constant threats and reminders to be nice. You know how we say, ‘People never learn?’ It’s because they never do. But religious texts try to keep them on track.”

“But people need to believe in something bigger than themselves.”

“Why?” Calvin pressed. “What’s wrong with believing in ourselves?

Families required constant maintenance.

They either wanted to control her, touch her, dominate her, silence her, correct her, or tell her what to do. She didn’t understand why they couldn’t just treat her as a fellow human being, as a colleague, a friend, an equal, or even a stranger on the street, someone to whom one is automatically respectful until you find out they’ve buried a bunch of bodies in the backyard.

“But you realize,” she said carefully, as if not to embarrass him further, “that faith isn’t based on religion. Right?”

Courage is the root of change—and change is what we’re chemically designed to do. So when you wake up tomorrow, make this pledge. No more holding yourself back. No more subscribing to others’ opinions of what you can and cannot achieve. And no more allowing anyone to pigeonhole you into useless categories of sex, race, economic status, and religion. Do not allow your talents to lie dormant, ladies. Design your own future. When you go home today, ask yourself what you will change. And then get started.”