Frying countries

Govern a great country as you would fry a small fish: do not poke at it too much.
-- Lao Tzu

Animal Spirits!

Most, probably, of our decisions to do something positive, the full consequences of which will be drawn out over many days to come, can only be taken as the result of animal spirits - a spontaneous urge to action rather than inaction, and not as the outcome of a weighted average of quantitative benefits multiplied by quantitative probabilities.

-- Keynes, The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money

Libertas

LIBERTATEM QUAM PEPERERE MAIORES DIGNE STUDEAT SERVARE POSTERITAS
Posterity should strive to preserve the freedom that the ancestors won.
-- Hamburg Town Hall inscription

Marriage

N.C.: Non ce la faccio, ogni volta che apro bocca dico una nuova bugia.
M.C.: Smettila di piagnucolare, basta, si chiama matrimonio.
N.C.: I can't take it anymore, every time I open my mouth I tell a new lie.
M.C.: Stop whining, enough, this is what they call marriage.
-- Frasier

The other way around

Creativity is the sudden cessation of stupidity
-- Edwin Land

Two quotations by physicist Feynman

"The next question was - what makes planets go around the sun? At the time of Kepler some people answered this problem by saying that there were angels behind them beating their wings and pushing the planets around an orbit. As you will see, the answer is not very far from the truth. The only difference is that the angels sit in a different direction and their wings push inward."
-- Richard Feynman, Character Of Physical Law, p. 8

What I am going to tell you about is what we teach our physics students in the third or fourth year of graduate school... It is my task to convince you not to turn away because you don't understand it. You see my physics students don't understand it... That is because I don't understand it. Nobody does.
-- Richard Feynman, Nobel Lecture, 1966

La penisola del Tesoro

È caduto l'Impero romano, può cadere anche Mediobanca. Ma le Generali mai, esse sono il vero tesoro di questo Paese e non devono cadere.
The Roman Empire is fallen, Mediobanca can fall. But Generali Insurance cannot, they are the true treasure of our country and they shall never fall.
-- Enrico Cuccia

The essence of perfection

The qualities of a pure soul are intelligence devoid of envy, ambition free from malice, and unceasing love for the Lord of glory.
-- St Diadochos of Photiki

Office politics

It's better to have the right person ask the wrong question than to have the wrong person ask the right question.
-- Dilbert comic

The whole point with science

The issue of how confident we are in the [...] answer is a subtle one which cannot be resolved by computing some measure of how well the model mimics historical data. The degree of confidence in the answer depends on the confidence that is placed in the economic theory being used.
-- Kydland and Prescott, 1991 AD

Every downwards movement of a body made of gold or lead, or any other material, is faster inasmuch the body is larger.
-- Aristotle, 300 BC

[...] it's the first time they had somebody tell the truth about what the problems are instead of denying and instead of saying, "Oh, yeah, everything is fine: No inflation, war's going to end next week, losing 4,000 men doesn't mean all that much."

-- Ron Paul, Republican presidential candidate 2008

The unexpected citrus

Pummelo (citrus maxima): it's like an enormous grapefruit with just enough sugar added.

Year 6 A9

After 9/11 the world has changed but the tramway is still late.
-- Matteo Mandrile, October 2001.

Fate

The fate of destruction is also the joy of rebirth.

Inflation

Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon.
-- Milton Friedman

Multiculturalism

The early bird catches the worm.
-- English proverb

The stupid bird has to fly early.
-- Chinese proverb

Comunist

Il comunismo è una necessità.
Communism is a necessity.
-- M.P.

Taxes

Le tasse sono una cosa bellissima.
Taxes are a most beautiful thing.
-- Padoa-Schioppa, Italian Minister of the Economy.

Love in marriage

Now that you pretend to be more beautiful than you actually are, I love you more.

Il mio passaporto

I, Robot

Rabota ne volk, v les ne ubesgit.
Work is not a wolf, it will not flee into the woods.
-- Luca from Luxembourg

Jail

La vita è una prigione.
Life is a prison.
-- MGS

Issues

Why, on TV, when they speak about race issues you have blacks and whites and Asians but they are all rich, and when you speak about poverty, there are poor and rich but they are all white?
-- Becky, random acquaintance

The End of the Rainbow

The International Monetary Fund is a non-profit organization. Who would need a profit when you are sitting on top of 3,217 tonnes of gold?

Invoices

Sono contento solo quando fatturo.
I am happy only when I post invoices.
-- A.C.

Caffeine

A night full of Sunkist prophecies...

Please don't smoke

男人不抽烟比女人长胡子更难看。
A man who does not smoke is like a woman with a beard.

Trinken

Es hat keinen Sinn, Sorgen im Alkohol ertränken zu wollen, denn Sorgen sind gute Schwimmer.
It makes no sense to want to drown your sorrows in alcohol, because sorrows are good swimmers.
-- Robert Musil

Cost-Benefit Analysis

Paris vaut bien une messe.
Paris is well worth a mass.
-- Henri IV

Religion and HR

Having a diverse team is an advantage. When things go bad there is a higher probability that one of you is praying to the right god.

Omelette

Il est 2007 et il n'y a aucun outil pour renverser une grande omelette sans risque.
It is 2007 and there is no tool to flip an omelette without risk.

Freedom of expression

With the arrest of OJ Simpson, I had a feeling that America is seriously in trouble. With the arrest of Star Simpson, I have a certainty that America is going down the drain.

Menschen

Menschen ficken, und dann problemen entstehen.