I'm prepared to concede that stupidity does not help survival. One must after all understand not to poke a tiger with a stick. But intelligence leads to curiosity, and curiosity has never been a quality that helps one pour his or her genes into the pool. The truth must lie somewhere between. Whatever the reason, it is clearly mediocrity, at best, that lives and breeds.

... the truth is that when your people don't tell you what you need to know, it's a failure of leadership.

It can provide horrendous weapons to idiots.

Show me what a people admire, and I will tell you everything about them that matters.

The cultures we can look at had already grasped the essential unity of nature. No board of gods can survive that knowledge.

The uplifters are forever running around telling blockheads they would do better if they would believe in themselves. But they already do. That is why they are blockheads.

The secret to a successful career in virtually any field is good public relations. Forget results. Forget the facts. Perception is all that matters.