“Scientists may be in the business of laughing at their predecessors, but owing to an array of human mental dispositions, few realize that someone will laugh at their beliefs in the (disappointingly near) future.”

“The observation of the numerous misfortunes that attend all conditions forbids us to grow insolent upon our present enjoyments, or to admire a man's happiness that may yet, in course of time, suffer change. For the uncertain future has yet to come, with all variety of future; and to him only to whom the divinity has [guaranteed] continued happiness until the end we may call happy.”

“The curious mind embraces science; the gifted and sensitive, the arts; the practical, business; the leftover becomes an economist”

“There are some people who, if they don't already know, you can't tell them.As the great philosopher of uncertainty Yogi berra once said, "Don't waste your time trying to fight forecasters, stock analysts, economists and social scientists, except to play pranks on them.”

“A prophet is not someone with special visions, just someone blind to most of what others see”

“If the past, by bringing surprises, did not resemble the past previous to it (what I call the past's past), then why should our future resemble our current past?”

“Aesthetics, ethics, and many good things in humans are contagious.”