You Have Arrived at Your Destination (Forward Collection, #4)

by Amor Towles

A second-act setback—in which, having started confidently along a particular trajectory, we come face-to-face with our own limitations.”

But our strengths don’t serve us well in every circumstance at every phase of our lives. As we grow and enter new contexts, our longer-term strengths can suddenly hamper our worldly progress, which in turn can create dissonance at home.

eventually we have to confront the fact that the way we’ve approached life in the past is not effective in our current situation.

His typewriter! During all those years when he was toiling away in a kitchen, living in a walk-up, writing books that no one wanted to read, there was scarcity and rejection, but there was freedom and authenticity too.”

But our genes don’t merely express who we are. They contain all manner of talents from previous generations that we may not benefit from personally but that can be passed on to our progeny.

“And because Daniel is someone for whom things came easy, he ends up being an asshole?” “Not ‘ends up,’ Sam. He’s an asshole to begin with.

“Because genetics is the future of defense.”