Wittgenstein's ruler: Unless you have confidence in the ruler's reliability, if you use a ruler to measure a table you may also be using the table to measure the ruler.

An erudite is someone who displays less than he knows; a journalist or consultant the opposite.

You have family-owned businesses that have been around for 500 years. You cannot name a corporation that survives intact for even a few decades.

People are much less interested in what you are trying to show them than what you are trying to hide.

People have the problem of denial. This is one of the things I learned in Lebanon. Everybody who left Beirut when the war started, including my parents, said, 'Oh, its temporary.' It lasted 17 years! People tend to underestimate the gravity of these situations. That's how they work.

You will get the most attention from those who hate you. No friend, no admirer and no partner will flatter you with as much curiosity.

This is the tragedy of modernity: as with neurotically overprotective parents, those trying to help are often hurting us the most.