It's All Relative Quotes

“I once made the mistake of uttering the phrase "kill two birds with one stone" in [Aunt Marti's] presence. She corrected me. The proper phrase is "liberate two birds with one gesture.”
― A.J. Jacobs, It's All Relative: Adventures Up and Down the World's Family Tree

“There are only three things I want you to take away from your Judaism: 1. Love of family. 2. Love of learning. 3. Love of responsibility toward others.”
― A.J. Jacobs, It's All Relative: Adventures Up and Down the World's Family Tree

“Mrs. Bush answers: “I think you ought to treat your spouse like you treat your friends. You clean your house for your friends, you make sure they’re taken care of. A spouse often comes second. So treat your spouse like the friends. Don’t just go halfway. If each spouse goes seventy-five percent of the way, it’s a perfect match.”
― A.J. Jacobs, It's All Relative: Adventures Up and Down the World's Family Tree

“Tyson emails back: “I’m going to tell you the same thing that I told Henry Louis Gates” (Gates had asked Tyson to appear on his show Finding Your Roots): My philosophy of root-finding may be unorthodox. I just don’t care. And that’s not a passive, but active absence of caring. In the tree of life, any two people in the world share a common ancestor—depending only on how far back you look. So the line we draw to establish family and heritage is entirely arbitrary. When I wonder what I am capable of achieving, I don’t look to family lineage, I look to all human beings. That’s the genetic relationship that matters to me. The genius of Isaac Newton, the courage of Gandhi and MLK, the bravery of Joan of Arc, the athletic feats of Michael Jordan, the oratorical skills of Sir Winston Churchill, the compassion of Mother Teresa. I look to the entire human race for inspiration for what I can be—because I am human. Couldn’t care less if I were a descendant of kings or paupers, saints or sinners, the valorous or cowardly. My life is what I make of it.”
― A.J. Jacobs, It's All Relative: Adventures Up and Down the World's Family Tree

“We cannot live for ourselves alone. Our lives are connected by a thousand invisible threads, and along these sympathetic fibers, our actions run as causes and return to us as results.”
― A.J. Jacobs, It's All Relative: Adventures Up and Down the World's Family Tree