Both the liberal and the conservative are in agreement: it is all very well to let the people alone, but only if they do what you want them to do.

Central planning doesn't work. A little bit of it is a drag. A lot is fatal.

Harness the Power of Accelerated Failure - the faster you fail, the faster you succeed.

The entire world economy rests on the consumer; if he ever stops spending money he doesn't have on things he doesn't need -- we're done for.

You don't get what you want from investing, you get what you deserve.

That is the problem with age and wisdom—it merely shows you how helpless you are. The wiser you become, the more you learn to keep your mouth shut, until eventually the grave silences you forever.

If you look carefully, almost all Old Money secrets can be traced to a single source: a longer-term outlook.

A man's wealth can...also be measured by what he doesn't have and doesn't want. When he wants little, he is a rich man.

If there is one thing that marks families with money in the long term it is this: delayed gratification.

People do not get what they want or what they expect from the markets; they get what they deserve.

You can forget about recovery. There is no recovery - and there's not going to be any recovery. Recovery is an impossibility.

Reading is poor man's way of travelling not just around the world but into the minds of people.

I'm ashamed and embarrassed to say that I've read very little of David Foster Wallace's work. It's a huge gap in my education, one of many.

Now, drama is quite useful at helping us to understand what our position is and, conversely, we might then understand why our theatre is being destroyed

A long-running TV series is a beast in that it demands you stick to one character over a long haul.

Vermeer's woman reading a letter is as full of latent or subliminal kitsch as Tolstoy's War and Peace.

I'm trying to elevate small-talk to medium talk.

No, no, no, no,no,' he gasped. 'You can't bring up your mum and dad while your hand is down there, Finke

The lesson from the smith and wesson is depressin'.

Then a sentimental passion of a vegetable fashion must excite your languid spleen, An attachment a la Plato for a bashful young potato, or a not-too-French French bean!

Creativity is the most practical thing a businessman can employ.