I feel satisfied now that each of us fully understands what is in the mind of the other.
-- Neville Chamberlain (Part 1: Chapter 2)

Importance: Neville Chamberlain said this during a speech at Heston Airport after returning from a meeting with Adolf Hitler. Believing that he had successfully communicated with and interpreted Hitler's character, Chamberlain announced in the same speech that the German dictator was honest and trustworthy. Gladwell uses Chamberlain's error to discuss the human failure to understand when they are being lied to.

It's a mess.
-- Malcolm Gladwell (Part 1: Chapter 2)

Importance: Malcolm Gladwell writes this of people's inability to communicate with and understand strangers. In the same passage he says that because the rules for engaging with strangers are flawed, passing interactions often result in sloppy communication and violence. Placed towards the start of the text, this line speaks to Gladwell's overarching work to examine the ways in which misreading strangers' intentions may be the root cause for a variety...