The best simpleminded test of expertise in a particular area is an ability to win money in a series of bets on future occurrences in that area.

I think the election of Trump was an expression of what happens in ruling powers as they become alarmed.

When we succeeded in winning the Cold War, escaping a nuclear Armageddon that could have killed us all, the U.S. inevitably had a serious problem about an encore: what now for our place in the world?

There are two great tragedies in life: one is to fail to achieve one's grandest ambitions, and the other one is to succeed.

Putin needs to understand and feel in his gut that if the Chechens get a nuclear bomb, they're going to Moscow first, they're not coming to New York.

And I hope that we can learn the lessons of the past in looking at the current challenge that China poses to a ruling America.

One of the three big factors that count against war in the relationship between China and the U.S. are, first, nuclear weapons and even a condition of mutual assured destruction. Secondly, one's got two economies that have become so deeply interlaced that a war between the U.S. and China would leave Wal-Marts empty and Chinese factories producing for nothing. Thirdly, climate - if between the two of us, we keep doing what we're doing, we can create a climate in which our grandchildren won't be able to live.