Montek Ahluwalia

"Confidence grows at the rate that a coconut tree grows, and it falls at the rate a coconut falls."

Davos, 2009

Cecil Rhodes

"We must find new lands from which we can easily obtain raw materials and at the same time exploit the cheap slave labor that is available from the natives of the colonies. The colonies would also provide a dumping ground for the surplus goods produced in our factories."

Raw imperialism is illuminating in its straight forwardness.

Will Rogers

“It's almost worth the Great Depression to learn how little our big men know.”

Andrew Mellon

Former Secretary of Treasury, on the eve of the Great Depression (1929):

"Liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmers, liquidate real estate … It will purge the rottenness out of the system. High costs of living and high living will come down. People will work harder, live a more moral life. Values will be adjusted, and enterprising people will pick up the wrecks from less competent people."

How did that work out ?

Betrand Russell

From A History of Western Philosophy:

"To us, it seems that West-European civilization is civilization, but this is a narrow view. Most of the cultural content of our civilization comes to us from the Eastern Mediterranean, from Greeks and Jews. As for power; Western Europe was dominant from the Punic Wars to the Fall of Rome - say, roughly, during the six centuries from 200 B.C. to 400 A.D. After that time (until the Renaissance), no state in Western Europe could compare in power with China, Japan, or the Caliphate."

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"There is an imperialism of culture which is harder to overcome than the imperialism of power. Long after the Western Empire fell - indeed until the Reformation - all European culture retained a tincture of Roman imperialism. It now has, for us, a West-European imperialistic flavor. I think if we are to feel at home in the world after the present war, we shall have to admit Asia to equality in our thoughts, not only politically, but culturally. What changes this will bring about, I do not know, but I am convinced they will be profound and of the greatest importance."

From the last pages of Chapter VII.

Chuck Prince

Former CEO of Citigroup, regarding leveraged lending :

“As long as the music is playing, you’ve got to get up and dance...We’re still dancing.”