Any system that is deprived of its natural volatility, with government up (unintelligible) volatile, any system becomes very fragile.

The problem of knowledge is that there are many more books on birds written by ornithologists than books on birds written by birds and books on ornithologists written by birds

Many people keep deploring the low level of formal education in the United states (as defined by, say, math grades). Yet these fail to realize that the new comes from here and gets imitated elsewhere. And it is not thanks to universities, which obviously claim a lot more credit than their accomplishments warrant. Like Britain in the Industrial Revolution, America's asset is, simply, risk taking and the use of optionality, this remarkable ability to engage in rational forms fo trial and error, with no comparative shame in failing again, starting again, and repeating failure.

Education makes the wise slightly wiser, but it makes the fool vastly more dangerous.

The best philosophers were not academics, but had another job, so their philosophy was not corrupted by careerism.

The opposite of manliness isn't cowardice; it's technology.

Suckers try to win arguments, nonsuckers try to win.