It is impossible to live in the past, difficult to live in the present and a waste to live in the future.

What you of the CHOAM directorate seem unable to understand is that you seldom find real loyalties in commerce. ... Men must want to do things of their own innermost drives. People, not commercial organizations or chains of command, are what make great civilizations work. Every civilization depends upon the quality of the individuals it produces. If you over-organize humans, over-legalize them, suppress their urge to greatness - they cannot work and their civilization collapses.

A human being can stand any amount of pain.

My father once told me that respect for truth comes close to being the basis for all morality. 'Something cannot emerge from nothing,' he said. This is profound thinking if you understand how unstable 'the truth' can be.

Humans live best when each has his place, when each knows where he belongs in the scheme of things. Destroy the place and destroy the person.

When you think to take determination of your fate into your own hands, that is the moment you can be crushed. Be cautious.

Control the coinage and the courts — let the rabble have the rest.