Since the attack on the United States on September 11 2001, and the US retaliation in Afghanistan and Iraq, there must be few people who have not felt a twinge of nostalgia for the cold war.

If good history is dispassionate history, it must naturally wait until the passions of the period subside.

By pouring money and goods into devastated regions, foreign aid workers sometimes compound the disruption and debauch the survivors.

Saudi Arabia is a puritanical state that claims a monopoly of wisdom and virtue.

Financial crises are like fireworks: they illuminate the sky even as they go pop.

A century ago, petroleum - what we call oil - was just an obscure commodity; today it is almost as vital to human existence as water.

Economists, like royal children, are not punished for their errors.

Losing your capital is like losing your trousers. It is a real humiliation, and one not to be soon repeated.

Is there any purpose to translating poetry? A poem does not contain information of importance, like a signpost or a warning notice.

Because bankers measure their self-worth in money, and pay themselves a lot of it, they think they're fine fellows and don't need to explain themselves.

Profits in business always depend on the rate of interest: the higher the interest, the higher the rate of profit required.

Be true to yourself and don't live your life according to other people's dreams and wants.

The Number One Rule of Working Is: DO THE BEST WORK YOU CAN. Why do anything but your best? What's the point?

Drawing is like making an expressive gesture with the advantage of permanence.

One is called to live nonviolently, even if the change one works for seems impossible.

That's lifted the crowd up into the air.

As a songwriter, it's very hard to listen to music that's not coming from the heart and soul, personally.

No other virtue makes man more equal to the angels, than the imitation of their way of life.

I'm not telling you that suicidal people aren't so far away from people who can get by; I'm telling you that people who can get by aren't so far away from being suicidal.

I'm able to come and do a new sound and grow even more and make greater songs because my song-making abilities have grown.

Where money is an idol, to be poor is a sin.