I once got a call from a bank, asking me to compute a mortgage, since their computers were down. This was a very depressing moment.

To be a hegemon is inherently ambiguous, usually implying some mixture of dominance and legitimacy, that is, being seen as contributing global leadership in a generally benevolent manner.

As such the meaning of hegemony is subject to varying interpretations depending on how the historical role of the United States is interpreted.

The capitalist priority is efficiency of capital and profitability, which is generally inconsistent with protecting the vulnerabilities of people and nature.

The central task of our time is to evolve a new system of world order based on principles of peace and justice.

International law in its counter-hegemonic uses is very important in any domain where issues of legitimacy are significant, but is rarely able to have a corresponding behavioural impact.

As Gandhi famously responded when asked about "Western civilization," "I wish they had one," the same applies to "international community": "I wish there was one."

When I told my son that I had to give a talk about my work to non-mathematicians, he warned me that regular people don't think like mathematicians.

Our sense of the free market is variable, shifting from a more welfare-oriented model after the Great Depression to a capital-driven market after the collapse of socialism as a viable alternative.

America is perhaps best viewed as an 'authoritarian democracy' within its own territory and as 'a global state' of a new kind when considered internationally.

The Method of Bisection is a sophisticated version of a tool used in fifth grade called "Guess and Check".

How had this happened? Everyone in the world knew more than us, about everything, and this I hated then found hugely comforting.

Music (Definition

Why spend a lifetime wishing for things a lot of people already possess in their lives? Your greatness lies in persistently going after your desires.

Your thoughts, beliefs, and interpretations filter how you see everything in your world—and here is the clincher—you get to choose!

I would spend some of it. I would help a lot of people around me. I will change a lot of people's lives around me, honestly.

I don't mind being laughed at: that's something I really don't mind, and I think that's kept me sane. My ability to laugh at myself and allow others to laugh at me has been my saving grace.

God loves us despite our shortcomings and sins, and his love gives meaning to our lives and to the life of the world.

I do not buy CDs any more; I usually stream Internet radio. For movies, I hardly every buy any DVDS. I have a DVR, so just record things off HBO, Showtime and so on.

He who dreads hostility too much is unfit to rule.

His heart as far from fraud as heaven from earth.