“At this point I should note that for the first time, both the United States secretary of state and secretary of defense have doctorates in Russian studies,” Mr. Gates said. “A fat lot of good that’s done us.”
US Defense Secretary, Robert Gates, speaking at an Oxford Analytica conference yesterday.
“Today’s necessary but likely very expensive action for taxpayers is the consequence of regulatory neglect and of a broader political system’s reluctance to take on what should have been clearly seen as festering problems.”
Larry Summers, sometime Harvard President and former Treasury Secretary, commenting on the nationalisation of Freddie Mac and Fannie May.
“We spend too much time getting our systems to work, and not enough putting them to work.”
“Greatness is measured by the size of your manhood.”
Subject line of a junk email caught by my spam-filter. Sounds vaguely Churchillian, don’t you think?
“Maybe he is interested in some subject, but it isn’t a subject we teach here.”
From one of Lord Snowden’s school reports during his time at Eton.
“I’m hoping the two of them will beat each others brains out over search and leave the display market to us.”
AOL CEO Randy Falco commenting on Microsoft’s bid for Yahoo.
Ah, the proved advantages of scholarship
whereas his dad took cold tea with his snap
he slaves at nuances, knows at just one sip
Chateau Lafite from Chateau Neuf du Pape.
Tony Harrison, Collected Poems, Viking, 2007.
… in 1970, Bertrand Russell died. I’ve always loved his essay In Praise of Idleness for its wonderful definition of ‘work’:
Work is of two kinds: first, altering the position of matter at or near the earth’s surface relatively to other such matter; second, telling other people to do so. The first kind is unpleasant and ill paid; the second is pleasant and highly paid.”
Great career advice for any young person.
The trouble with Oppenheimer is that he loves a woman who doesn’t love him — the United States government”.
Albert Einstein
“He was too New York, too Italian, and he had too many wives”.
Dorothy Kaliades, a retired jewelry designer who was having her nails done in Howard Beach, Queens when she was interviewed by the New York Times. She was explaining why she had never believed that Rudi Giuliani had a real chance of becoming the Republican candidate for president.