There have been only 268 of the past 3,421 years free of war.

Science gives us knowledge, but only philosophy can give us wisdom.

Every state begins in compulsion; but the habits of obedience become the content of conscience, and soon every citizen thrills with loyalty to the flag. The citizen is right; for however the state begins, it soon becomes an indispensable prop to order.

Science tells us how to heal and how to kill; it reduces our death rate in retail and then kills us wholesale in war; but only wisdom - desire coordinated in the light of all experience - can tell us when to heal and when to kill.

So I should say that civilizations begin with religion and stoicism: they end with scepticism and unbelief, and the undisciplined pursuit of individual pleasure. A civilization is born stoic and dies epicurean.

Bankers know that history is inflationary and that money is the last thing a wise man will hoard

Perhaps it is one secret of their power that, having studied the fluctuations of prices, the [bankers] know that history is inflationary.