Quote

Very often, my mentor finishes his lecture with a quote on his last slide. The quote is as compelling as the second last conclusion slide, but even more resonating. That is one of the surprises I've kept looking forward to. 

An epigraph or short quote at the beginning of each book chapter serves a similar purpose. For that matter, such quote works like a hook to grab our attention to new chapter. One chapter after another.

One good example is Rosemary Grant's memoir, One Step Sideways, Three Steps Forward. The evolutionary biologist and research scholar emeritus at Princeton University tells us her life's work in the Galápagos Islands and her lifelong love of nature. The way she works as a field biologist and as a mother raising her family is legendary. The honour of receiving the Kyoto Prize in Basic Sciences from the Inamori Foundation is as significant as her achievement to bring her children to visit Machu Picchu in Peru at their age of ten and eight years old.

Out of the epigraphs from the twenty-five chapters, the best one is a Native American proverb: Only when the last tree is cut, only when the last river is polluted, only when the last fish is caught, will they realise that you can't eat money.