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

[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.

It is much more accurate to identify the factors of production as know-how (that is genetic information structure), energy, and materials, for, as we have seen, all processes of production involve the direction of energy by some know-how structure toward the selection, transportation, and transformation of materials into the product

The only religion that still demands human sacrifice is nationalism.

Private property is a means, and neither its abolition nor its unrestricted right should be an end in itself.

[The consumer is] the supreme mover of economic order... for whom all goods are made and towards whom all economic activity is directed.

In calling society an ecological system we are not merely using an analogy; society is an example of the general concept of an "ecosystem" that is, an ecological system of which biological systems - forests, fields, swamps - are other examples.