Quote of the day

“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.

Quote of the Day

“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.

Quote of the day

“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?

Quote of the day

“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.

Source

Social mobility

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.

On this day…

… 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.

Quote of the day

“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.