People have always thought with their butts, even those who mistakenly believe they’ve always thought with their brains.

I know which path is the right one, but I never take it—it's too hard.

Disciplined people can't understand why people get addicted to games in internet cafes. Unless you've been down and out yourself, unless you've wallowed alongside them, you won't truly get it. But there's no chance for that—you "top students" basically have a straight path your whole life.

Top students struggle to grasp that many people in this world exist, people whose pain comes from feeling excluded, unvalued, and unable to find direction or meaning in life.

The people who bought indulgences in the Middle Ages didn't believe in themselves—they believed in someone else, in whoever they put their faith in. This belief wasn't even about results, because they were told those would come only in the afterlife, yet they still chose to believe. They might not truly have believed in an afterlife or the power of indulgences; what they lacked was faith in themselves. What they needed was a spiritual anchor, the sense of being part of a grand narrative.

Just because you're an elite doesn't mean everyone else is. Just because you've got brainpower doesn't mean others do too.