Americans are ideological conservatives but operational liberals. They oppose government in the abstract, but favor it in most of the particulars

Tom Stafford, on Twitter

Twitter is like having a little part of you that's always down the pub

Publisher's report on "Lord of the Flies"

Time: the Future. Absurd & uninteresting fantasy about the explosion of an atom bomb on the Colonies. A group of children who land in jungle-country near New Guinea. Rubbish & dull. Pointless.

Fasi Zaka, on Pakistan

If we had real democracy, there would be no internet in Pakistan, women would not be allowed out of their homes, education would come to a standstill and we would begin a programme of killing off every minority

David Musgrave, on musical decline

O Sting, where is thy death?

Somerset Maugham, on writing

There are three secrets to writing a novel. Unfortunately nobody knows what they are

Gunther Grass, on digitisation

I would like to put a stop to this movement toward reading on computers, but it seems that nobody can do this

No matter how high a value we place on irony, it is impossible to govern ironically

Alain de Botton, on ego

One has to care rather a lot about one's reviews, to go to the trouble of not reading them

Chris Anderson, on industry

There has hardly ever been a fortune created without a monopoly. This is the natural path of industrialization: invention, propagation, adoption, control

The best way to handle a situation in which you have no power is to give up the illusion of power and appeal to the generosity of the person in power

Andy Grove, on incentives

For every goal you put in front of someone, you should also put in place a counter-goal to restrict gaming of the first goal

Drake Bennett, on morality

All the world's moral systems can best be characterised, not by what their adherents believe, but by what emotions they rely on

Martin Amis, on ambition

The desire for immortality explains all extraordinary achievements, both good and bad

John Stuart Mill, on conservatism

While not all conservatives are stupid, all stupid people are generally conservative

Richard Corliss, on brevity

In hotel rooms where pornography is available, two-thirds of all movie purchases are for pornos; and the average time they are watched is 12 minutes

Archbishop Hélder Câmara, on poverty

When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist

 

The prestige of doctors is curiously unaffected by their lack of success. Until around 1900, we now know, the medical profession scarcely cured anyone and did nothing to increase average life expectancy

Liars add extra irrelevant detail to make their lies seem more believable. Religions do the same

Start with a vision of what you want, and then, one by one, remove the technical obstacles until you have it