In 1054, the patriarch of Constantinople and the pope excommunicated each other. That was the end of holiness for both churches.

Every civilization depends on 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.

They say they seek security and quiet, the condition they call peace. Even as they speak they create the seeds of turmoil and violence.

Technology tends toward avoidance of risks by investors. Uncertainty is ruled out if possible. People generally prefer the predictable. Few recognize how destructive this can be, how it imposes severe limits on variability and thus makes whole populations fatally vulnerable to the shocking ways our universe can throw the dice.

Every civilization must contend with an unconscious force which can block, betray, or countermand almost any conscious intention of the collectivity.

Bureaucracy destroys initiative. There is little that bureaucrats hate more than innovation, especially innovation that produces better results than the old routines. Improvements always make those at the top of the heap look inept. Who enjoys appearing inept?

Grief is the price of victory.