“The eighth mistake consists in the astounding, yet in our day widely prevalent, denial of human nature.”

Mortimer J. Adler, Ten Philosophical Mistakes

“there is no known way, other than by the distribution of products in a competitive market, to inform individuals in what direction their several efforts must aim so as to contribute as much as possible to the total product.”

Friedrich Hayek The Fatal Conceit

"Excuses are the nails used to build a house of failure."

Don Wilder, quoted on www.hound-dog-media.com/

“H.L. Mencken’s definition of the pessimist as a man who, if he smells a rose, looks around for a coffin.”

Matthew Scully in National Review October 27, 1997

“Happiness is a hard master – particularly other people’s happiness. A much harder master, if one isn’t conditioned to accept it unquestioningly, than truth.”

Mustapha Mond in Aldous Huxley Brave New World

“‘How was I,’ I asked innocently. ‘Good?’ ‘A most remarkable performance, Minister, if I may say so,’ he answered with studied ambiguity.”

Jim Hacker and Sir Humphrey (after a interview in which, in fact, by announcing a policy Hacker had totally checkmated Sir Humphrey) in Yes Minister Vol. I

“On ne devrait s’étonner que de pouvoir encore s’étonner.” ("The only thing that should astonish us is that we can still be astonished.")

La Rochefoucauld “Réflexions morales #384” in Maximes

“the best assumption with regard to the men and women of the fifteenth or any other medieval century is that in essentials they were like-minded with ourselves. We should not be deceived by different conventions, or by contrasts which may be only superficial. Both the pomp and artificiality of court life in the fifteenth century, and the extravagances of the baronial households, often commented on, had a logic of their own in the circumstances of the times; they were far from being the product of men and women whose motives were very different from our own. Life may have been more colourful, unrestrained, and uncertain, in the fifteenth century than at later times; but this did not really change the inner nature of the men and women of the age.’”

Bertie Wilkinson Constitutional History of England in the Fifteenth Century 1399-1485 (Wilkinson was my grandfather)