"Capitalism undoubtedly has certain boils and blotches upon it, but has it as many as government? Has it as many as marriage? Has it as many as religion? I doubt it. It is the only basic institution of modern man that shows any genuine health and vigor."
-H.L.Mencken

"Unlike animals, human beings are consciously aware of the paradox of inhabiting two worlds, an external world of objects and quantitites, and a subjective world of thought, imagination, values, feeling and will."
-Robert Godwin

" 'Zoom!' What was that? That was your life, mate. Oh, that was quick, do I get another? Sorry mate, that's your lot."
-Basil Fawlty

"What gives expertise its power is not just the sheer amount of information stored in a brain, but the way it is organized. This is the product not of "talent," which is mere potential (and every brain is packed with that), but of intense motivation -- fascination, obsession -- driving long, hard work. And motivation operates in a feedback loop: the pleasure of difficult success feeds the drive for more such challenges and rewards. It's easy to see that the reinforcing rewards are both internal -- the aesthetic rush of solving a problem -- and external: praise, status, opportunity."
-http://ambivablog.typepad.com