Author Walter Isaacson is drawn to minds that bend the world. He writes about men who catch lightning, who bottle reason, who turn math into light and light into money. He likes people whose thoughts leave a visible trail.

In "Benjamin Franklin: An American Life," he traces curiosity as a civic virtue; in "Einstein: His Life And Universe," he finds grace in the equations of space and time; in "Steve Jobs" and "Elon Musk" he watches invention turn inward toward personality. Each book begins with the same quiet premise: Genius, at its best, is a way of turning thought into something that lasts.

This time Isaacson swivels his attention from invention to intention. His new book isn't about a man. It's about a sentence--80 pages on 26 words that have changed everything once and might do it ag

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