To say that we mutually agree to coercion is not to say that we are required to enjoy it, or even to pretend we enjoy it.

But it is no good using the tongs of reason to pull the Fundamentalists' chestnuts out of the fire of contradiction. Their real troubles lie elsewhere.

You cannot do only one thing.

(Technology reliability) x (Human reliability) = (System reliability)

No one should be able to enter a wilderness by mechanical means.

In a competitive world of limited resources, total freedom of individual action is intolerable

People are the quintessential element in all technology... Once we recognize the inescapable human nexus of all technology our attitude toward the reliability problem is fundamentally changed.

Ruin is the destination toward which all men rush, each pursuing his own best interest in a society that believes in the freedom of the commons.

Why are ecologists and environmentalists so feared and hated? This is because in part what they have to say is new to the general public, and the new is always alarming.

Freedom in a commons brings ruin to all.

The only thing we can really count on in this uncertain world is human unreliability itself.

If only you could see the greatness in yourself, you wouldn't envy the greatness in others.

Only the present exists. The past is gone, and the future has not yet happened. There is only ever time present.

The greatness of a man's power is the measure of his surrender.

... a science must deal with a subject and its properties.

Can I wear your blazer?

Common people, whether lords or shop-keepers, are slow to understand that possession, whether in the shape of birth or lands or money or intellect, is a small affair in the difference between men.

Tears are the showers that fertilize this world.

I want to have a bunch of kids so I can boss them around.

Look well to the characters and qualifications of those you elect and raise to office and places of trust.

I work best when a little scared, when there's so much more than the lines to think about.