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"I shall never come to the end of your interests, Fisher. I should say that what you don't know isn't worth knowing." "You are wrong," replied Fisher, with a very unusual abruptness, and even bitterness. "It's what I do know that isn't worth knowing.

G.K. Chesterton • The Man Who Knew Too Much (Xist Classics)

of outlandish facts and quotes—he is a tenacious reporter—and a style that barely suppresses his own amusement. It works particularly well on the buccaneers who continue to try the patience of the citizenry, as proved by his profile in The New Yorker of the developer Donald Trump. Noting that Trump “had aspired to and achieved the ultimate luxury,

William Zinsser • On Writing Well, 30th Anniversary Edition: An Informal Guide to Writing Nonfiction

An oft-repeated joke about the IMF is that its initials stand for "It's Mostly Fiscal." The humor stems from the Fund's seeming obsession with bludgeoning countries into cutting spending or raising taxes, as if there were no economic problem that a lower budget deficit or (better yet) fatter surplus wouldn't cure.

Paul Blustein • And the Money Kept Rolling in (And Out): Wall Street, the Imf, And the Bankrupting of Argentina: Wall Street, the IMF and the Bankrupting of Argentina

For the modern world, questions about the nature of humanity would be viewed on par with the struggle among the Lilliputians about the correct way to cut open an egg. Hobbes, the first truly modern philosopher, boasted of how he deserted and ran away from fighting in a religious war; a cowardly life had become preferable to a heroic but meaningless... See more

Peter Thiel • The Straussian Moment

Middle America was in despair over what its revolting children were up to, though it seemed to have fewer qualms about pouring fire onto the people of Vietnam.

Richard Holloway • Stories We Tell Ourselves: Making Meaning in a Meaningless Universe

Our country was founded by the delusional and the crazy, populated by the desperate and the unwilling, motivated by most of the Seven Deadly Sins, and is somehow . . . the richest and most powerful nation on earth, ever.

P.J. O'Rourke • A Cry from the Far Middle: Dispatches from a Divided Land

If economic growth does not produce happiness, said the new wisdom, then there was no point in striving for prosperity and the world economy should be brought to a soft landing at a reasonable level of income. Or, as one economist put it: ‘The hippies were right all along’.

Matt Ridley • The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves (P.S.)

The Affluent Society

John Kenneth Galbraith

amazon.com

I think it's as clear as the nose on my face that the fiscal path we're on is simply not sustainable. And when I'm asked to describe the situation we face, to me, it's always like a cancer, and it's a cancer that truly is going to destroy this country from within." This was not some crazed right-wing extremist speaking, nor even Alan Simpson,