Complexity and obscurity have professional value - they are the academic equivalents of apprenticeship rules in the building trades. They exclude the outsiders, keep down the competition, preserve the image of a privileged or priestly class. The man who makes things clear is a scab. He is criticized less for his clarity than for his treachery.

The modern corporation must manufacture not only goods but the desire for the goods it manufactures.

Nostalgia combines regularly with manifest respectability to give credence to old error as opposed to new truth.

The income men derive from producing things of slight consequence is of great consequence. The production reflects the low marginal utility of the goods to society. The income reflects the high total utility of a livelihood to a person.

Only foolish people are completely secure.

According to the experience of all but the most accomplished jugglers, it is easier to keep one ball in the air than many.

There is a common tendency to ignore the poor or to develop some rationalisation for the good fortune of the fortunate.