“That is a good example of why efficient and trustworthy courts are so important. Without them, people are left to their own devices. Frequently, that means violent, vigilante devices. Order breaks down. We no longer have civilization, only individuals acting in their own interest, not the common interest.”

“Then everyone leaves, and you are left, each night, to your own devices with a crowd of interesting people - most of whom you don't know - sitting in the dark.”

“The truth is, we value your company, for want of any other. We have been left so much to our own devices—after a while one welcomes the uncertainty of being left to other people's.”

“Yet in my experience, when left to their own devices people will get up to one of two things: nothing much, and no good.”

“ It is important that when pursing our own self-interest we should be “wise selfish” and not “foolish selfish”. Being foolish selfish means pursuing our own interests in a narrow, shortsighted way. Being wise selfish means taking a broader view and recognizing that our own long-term individual interest lies in the welfare of everyone. Being wise selfish means being compassionate.”

“The IPL, involving the socialist principle of a salary cap and the protectionist mechanism of quotas, is not perhaps the best example of a market left flourishingly to its own devices and dynamics.”