If good history is dispassionate history, it must naturally wait until the passions of the period subside.

By pouring money and goods into devastated regions, foreign aid workers sometimes compound the disruption and debauch the survivors.

Saudi Arabia is a puritanical state that claims a monopoly of wisdom and virtue.

Financial crises are like fireworks: they illuminate the sky even as they go pop.

A century ago, petroleum - what we call oil - was just an obscure commodity; today it is almost as vital to human existence as water.

Since the attack on the United States on September 11 2001, and the US retaliation in Afghanistan and Iraq, there must be few people who have not felt a twinge of nostalgia for the cold war.

Economists, like royal children, are not punished for their errors.

Losing your capital is like losing your trousers. It is a real humiliation, and one not to be soon repeated.

Is there any purpose to translating poetry? A poem does not contain information of importance, like a signpost or a warning notice.

Because bankers measure their self-worth in money, and pay themselves a lot of it, they think they're fine fellows and don't need to explain themselves.

Profits in business always depend on the rate of interest: the higher the interest, the higher the rate of profit required.

The essence of science is that it is always willing to abandon a given idea for a better one

You cannot give up. We are Gargoyle, and we are strong.

If you love a flower which happens to be on a star, it is sweet at night to gaze at the sky. All the stars are a riot of flowers.

Only when your inner life is right will your outer life be right as well.

I do not believe in excuses. I believe in hard work as the prime solvent of life's problems.

5. You feel he has a lot of admirable qualities.

I respect a man who can recognize a quotation. It's a dying art.

Glory is largely a theatrical concept. There is no striving for glory without a vivid awareness of an audience.

Some of your teachers are actually closer in age to you than you think.

I'm so close to Heaven, this Hell cannot be mine.