“The confusion of the times, and the scarcity of authentic memorials, pose equal difficulties to the historian... Surrounded with imperfect fragments, always concise, often obscure, and sometimes contradictory, he is reduced to collect, to compare, and to conjecture: and though he ought never to place his conjectures in the rank of facts, yet the knowledge of human nature, and of the sure operation of its fierce and unrestrained passions, might, on some occasions, supply the want of historical materials.”

Edward Gibbon Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

“Too large a proportion of recent ‘mathematical’ economics are mere concoctions as imprecise as the initial assumptions they rest on, which allow the author to lose sight of the complexities and interdependencies of the real world in a maze of pretentious and unhelpful symbols.”

John Maynard Keynes The General Theory of Employment Interest and Money

“In the end, it is important to remember that we cannot become what we need to be by remaining what we are.”

Max De Pree quoted by Jeff Hayden on Inc. online (www.inc.com/jeff-haden/top-350-inspiring-motivational-quotes-to-tweet-and-share.html)

“And the nicest thing about that Simplicity is its useful wisdom, the what-is-there-to-eat variety – wisdom you can get at.”

Benjamin Hoff The Tao of Pooh

“James J. Hill’s phrase ‘the cost of high living’...”

Robert H. Wiebe, Businessmen and Reform: A Study of the Progressive Movement.

“I would urge you to waste no time in making this candidate an offer of employment.”

Another double-edged letter of recommendation phrase found in multiple places online.

“the only way to enjoy even a weed is to feel unworthy even of a weed.”

G.K. Chesterton, quoted by Eric Scheske in Gilbert! magazine Vol. 4 #1 (September 2000)

“If human nature never changes, why is it that we not only don’t practice cannibalism any more, but don’t even want to?”

George Orwell, quoted as “Thought du jour” in Globe & Mail Feb. 27, 2002