We can safely abandon the doctrine of the eighties, namely that the rich were not working because they had too little money, the poor because they had much.

We have escapist fiction, so why not escapist biography?

People of privilege will always risk their complete destruction rather than surrender any material part of their advantage.

Partly, the Russian system succeeds because, in contrast to the Western industrial economies, it makes full use of its manpower.

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.

In the usual (though certainly not in every) public decision on economic policy, the choice is between courses that are almost equally good or equally bad. It is the narrowest decisions that are most ardently debated.

Inventions that are not made, like babies that are not born, are rarely missed.