“All plans of government, which suppose great reformation in the manners of mankind, are plainly imaginary.”

David Hume, Idea of a Perfect Commonwealth quoted in Samuel Brittan Against the Flow

“It’s budget season in Canada — the time of year when economists emerge from their dens, shake the moss out of their hair, scratch a tree, note the length of their shadow and use it to predict that the economy will definitely grow this year unless conditions cause it to stall.”

Monte Solbert in Ottawa Sun February 24, 2014

“There is no trap so deadly as the trap you set for yourself.”

Philip Marlowe’s internal monologue in Raymond Chandler The Long Goodbye

“And now, as we birds say, nests before eggs.”

The Raven in C.S. Lewis The Horse and His Boy

“What’s the point of being a hedonist if you’re not having a good time?”

Lily Tomlin’s "The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe" show, quoted in The New Republic Oct. 7, 1991

“the fastest execution since someone said, ‘This Guy Fawkes bloke, do we let him off, or what?’”

Edmund Blackadder in Black Adder Goes Forth, quoted in blackadderquotes.com/blackadder-series-4-episode-3-major-star-full-script

“‘It doesn’t really matter.’” “‘Here goes nothing.’” “‘It will be interesting to see what happens.’”

The three things the main character would say to himself, in that order, before paratroop-jumping during World War Two, in Sloan Wilson The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit

“After all that has been said of the levity and inconstancy of human nature, it appears evidently from experience that a man is of all sorts of luggage the most difficult to be transported.”

Adam Smith The Wealth of Nations