[Even the mechanism can be endowed with an image. Thus] the thermostat has an image of the outside world in the shape of information regarding its temperature. It has also a value system in the sense of the ideal temperature at which it is set. Its behavior is directed towards the receipt of information which will bring its image and its value systems together.

In any evolutionary process, even in the arts, the search for novelty becomes corrupting.

[on the theory of the firm] It is exactly analogous to the analysis of the reactions of a consumer by means of indifferent curves. Indeed, a consumer is merely a 'firm' whose product is 'utility.'

The human condition can almost be summed up in the observation that, whereas all experiences are of the past, all decisions are about the future. It is the great task of human knowledge to bridge this gap and to find those patterns in the past which can be projected into the future as realistic images.

Mathematicians themselves set up standards of generality and elegance in their exposition which are a bar to understand.

[The historical] development in the international system may almost be defined as the process by which we pass from stable war to stable peace.

Where there is hypocrisy, there is hope.