"I believe in evolution, because I think to disbelieve in evolution is like watching one of those elaborate displays of falling dominos, and saying the dominos aren't falling. Obviously they are; it's a question of whether the first one fell because there was a minor earthquake or because a finger tipped it over. And of course there's the matter of who set them up."
-James Lilek

Attitudes to Capitalism

"Much of what is wrong with popular attitudes to capitalism comes down to one thing: a lack of wonder at what uncoordinated markets can achieve. Going to a grocery store for the hundredth or thousandth time is a pretty humdrum experience. As a rule it isn't going to elicit much of an intellectual response -- though if it does, the response might be one of two kinds. The commentator Robert Kuttner once wrote of his dismay at the great number of breakfast cereals on offer in his local grocery. What a waste, was his point; who could possibly need all these different cereals? Can't we arrange things more intelligently? This is a leftist kind of response: "Put somebody sensible in charge and plan things better." The liberal response (in the proper sense of "liberal") is different: "How amazing that all these choices are available, so that every taste is catered to, and it's all so cheap." "
-Clive Crook reminiscing on Milton Friedman

"If everyone is thinking alike, then no one is thinking."
-Gen. George S. Patton, Jr.