The message from history is so blatantly obvious - that free trade causes mutual prosperity while protectionism causes poverty - that it seems incredible that anybody ever thinks otherwise. There is not a single example of a country opening its borders to trade and ending up poorer.
Matt RidleyLife is a Sisyphean race, run ever faster toward a finish line that is merely the start of the next race
Matt RidleySimple determinism, whether of the genetic or environmental kind, is a depressing prospect for those with a fondness for free will.
Matt RidleyThe interaction of genetic and external influences makes my behaviour unpredictable, but not undetermined. In the gap between those words lies freedom.
Matt RidleyThe fuel on which science runs is ignorance. Science is like a hungry furnace that must be fed logs from the forests of ignorance that surround us. In the process, the clearing we call knowledge expands, but the more it expands, the longer its perimeter and the more ignorance comes into view.
Matt Ridley