Be afraid of the Chinese. I mean, the Chinese shoot down satellites in space; they hack into Google's computers; the Osama bin Laden people can't make their underwear blow up.

For capitalism flourishes best in a mobile and egalitarian society

China is never going to be a global model. Western system is really broken in some fundamental ways, but the Chinese system is not going to work either. It is a deeply unfair and immoral system where everything can be taken away from anyone in a split second.

Economic activity is carried out by individuals in organisations that require a high degree of social co-operation

To truly esteem oneself means that one must be capable of feeling shame or self-disgust when one does not live up to a certain standard

As a piece of travel literature alone, 'The Ends of the Earth' succeeds in providing a tangible sense of the sweaty, smelly reality of many exotic points on the map, with glimpses of their cruelty but also, occasionally, of beauty and human kindness. As a piece of analysis, it is deeply thought-provoking.

The nation will continue to be a central pole of identification, even if more and more nations come to share common economic and political forms of organization.