C.S. Friedman Quotes

Building a naval power takes generations, not so much to develop the necessary technology as to pass along the accumulated experience that creates good admirals.

anger of any kind is a dangerous emotion, it eats at the nerves and eventually makes you careless

Culture is nested in context, not genes.

Development is a voluntary process. You need a positive decision to make the right steps, but it starts with introspection.

It is always dangerous to declare a turning point in history. We always tend to feel that, when we are alive, something really major is happening.

Given greater freedom about where to send their children, parents of a kind would flock together and so prevent a healthy intermingling of children from decidedly different backgrounds.

...I don't want to mar the moment with questions. By not asking too much, you can believe in almost anything.

Wars are times of intense technological transformation, because societies invest – sometimes with extensive borrowing – when and where matters of life and death are at stake.

Long-term solutions are more attractive and cause much less controversy than short-term solutions, which will affect people who are still alive and voting.

Presidents and other politicians manage the appearance of things, largely by manipulating the air and hope.

The worst president is closer by nature to the best then either is to anyone who has not gone through what it requires to become president.

You have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.

Sometimes the decision is placed in your hands and you just have to go with it, right or wrong, according to what you think is best.

Regaring Politics: You’ve got your cats on one side and your dogs on the other

It’s almost like that’s the definition of being American: You love becoming Irish for a day, or becoming Italian… Or becoming a Negro for four years.

Daily life is always extraordinary when rendered precisely. We can unlock our lives with a pencil tip.

Plot joined the expedition unwooed, as a necessary companion. It was not the scout. The scout was a certain mood. I followed that mood, and let the shape of the story flow from that.

A president must know what it is he does not know, and he should remain calm in pursuit of it, but there is no obligation to be honest about it.

No low-trust society will ever produce sustained innovation.

Virulence is the sound of a self-selecting community talking to itself and positively reinforcing itself with no obligation to answer to anyone or look anyone in the eye.

Summer-induced stupidity.That was the diagnosis...

But, standing in the fading golden sunlight now, I can feel some of the scars of the summer stabbing over. I can feel the promise of a new beginning.

There's this magical sense of possibility that stretches like a bridge between June and August. A sense that anything can happen.

The safest day at the Melody is St. Paddy's, " adds another Mardi Gras girl. "All the cops are out vomiting at the parade.

I am a libertarian with a small 'l' and a Republican with a capital 'R'. And I am a Republican with a capital 'R' on grounds of expediency, not on principle.

There is only one social responsibility of business - to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits without deception or fraud.

What kind of society isn't structured on greed? The problem of social organization is how to set up an arrangement under which greed will do the least harm capitalism is that kind of a system.

Concentrate on finding your goal then concentrate on reaching it.

Inflation is one form of taxation that can be imposed without legislation.

Success based on anything but internal fulfillment is bound to be empty.

I never thought of myself as a writer but the simplest thing seemed to be to put a piece of paper in the roller and start typing.

The greatest advances of civilization, whether in architecture or painting, in science and literature, in industry or agriculture, have never come from centralized government.

My first career was as a coach and a teacher.

As time goes by, I realize that I do trust the wind. And I often write my songs for myself.

Corn ethanol can help in the short term, but it has serious limitations, and none of this is going to work if we don't dramatically improve the efficiency of our cars and trucks.

Well first of all, tell me, is there some society you know of that doesn't run on greed? You think Russia doesn't run on greed? You think China doesn't run on greed? What is greed?