Character, not circumstances, makes the man.
— Booker T. Washington
The moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point … a place where the unexpected becomes expected, where radical change is more than possibility.
— Definition of “tipping point,” in Malcolm Gladwell’s book The Tipping Point
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom … it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way …
— A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens