Reisman Quotes & Sayings

Henry liked to put to himself when he was a schoolboy: what are the chances of this particular fish, from that shoal, off that continental shelf ending up in the pages of this copy of the Daily Mirror? Something just short of infinity to one. Similarly, the grains of sand on a beach, arranged just so. The random ordering of the world, the unimaginable odds against any particular condition, still please him. Even as a child, and especially after Aberfan, he never believed in fate or providence, or the future being made by someone in the sky. Instead, at every instant, a trillion trillion possible futures; the pickiness of pure chance and physical laws seemed like freedom from the scheming of a gloomy god. — Ian McEwan

Whoever claims that economic competition represents 'survival of the fittest' in the sense of the law of the jungle, provides the clearest possible evidence of his lack of knowledge of economics. — George Reisman

It seems that no two people came to this specialized area of work via the exact same route. — Randy West

You shouldn't be eating anything that takes six minutes to microwave. — Adam Carolla

Global warming is not a threat. But environmentalism's response to it is ... Even if global warming is a fact, the free citizens of an industrial civilization will have no great difficulty in coping with it-that is, of course, if their ability to use energy and to produce is not crippled by the environmental movement and by government controls otherwise inspired. — George Reisman

I can sometimes lose track of time when staring at a sky filled with wind-whipped clouds, and when I hear thunder rumbling, I always draw near the window to watch for lightning. When the next brilliant flash illuminates the sky, I often find myself filled with longing, though I'm at a loss to tell you what it is that I feel my life is missing. — Nicholas Sparks

Abraham Lincoln would maintain that he had never been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry. — Doris Kearns Goodwin

tree in bloom, a white farmhouse - potted basil in the kitchen — Nancy Reisman

The average American of today is intellectually so far removed from his forbears that instead of regarding government with apprehension, he is more likely to regard it as a virtual parent, concerned only with protecting and helping him — George Reisman

When thou diest, thy soul will be tormented alone; that will be a hell for it, but at the day of judgment they body will join thy soul, and then thou wilt have twin hells, thy soul sweating drops of blood, and thy body suffused with agony. In fire exactly like that which we have on earth thy body will lie, asbestos-like, forever unconsumed, all they veins roads for the feet of pain to travel on, every nerve a string on which the devil shall forever play his diabolical tune of 'Hell's Unutterable Lament'. — Charles Spurgeon

I tend to view the superstitions or fragments of myth as triggers for lyric inquiry. I also find I think of this kind of language as ars poetica - if we can find the right combination of words, we can make something improbably or extraordinary happen. — Anna Journey

Today, in the Twenty-First Century, an age of jet aircraft, personal computers, wireless telecommunications, laser surgery, and incipient space travel, the mentality with which many presumably educated, intelligent people approach matters of economics and business is, however astonishing it may seem, still that of the Dark Ages. — George Reisman

I am open and receptive to all the good and abundance in the Universe. — Louise Hay

Under communism (socialism), there is no incentive to supply people with anything they need or want, including safety. — George Reisman

Mermon's tiny black dot eyes managed to widen into larger black dots. "No, no, no, Sir. I was just ... curious."
"Curiosity is a good thing, like onion soup. But too much onion soup makes you breath smell terrible. and too much curiosity can make your whole body smell terrible, if it causes you to be dead."
Veenie nodded carefully; it was a strange threat, but a threat nonetheless. — Michael Reisman

The prisoner is the jailer's jailer. — Ursula K. Le Guin

Curiosity is a good thing, like onion soup. But too much onion soup makes your breath smell terrible. And too much curiosity can make your whole body smell terrible, if it causes you to be dead. — Michael Reisman

Glass-Steagall was an act of the US Congress, but it worked more like an act of God. It cleaved mankind in two. With it, in 1934, American lawmakers had stripped investment banking out from commercial banking. Investment bankers now underwrote securities, such as stocks and bonds. Commercial bankers, like Citibank, took deposits and made loans. The act, in effect, created the investment banking profession, the single most important event in the history of the world, or so I was led to believe. — Michael Lewis

Bruises that are ugly
And painful
And more than skin deep — Kim Holden

He wouldn't call a glass of water half full or half empty; he'd assume it was poisoned and run away. — Michael Reisman

The free market exists to promote prosperity and human life, and that is what it has accomplished, splendidly, with breathtaking brilliance. In the industrialized world, the average person today enjoys a standard of living superior to that of kings and emperors of the past. The whole world's population is capable of enjoying the same marvelous results, if it adopts economic freedom. — George Reisman

As for omens, there is no such thing as an omen. Destiny does not send us heralds. She is too wise or too cruel for that. — Oscar Wilde

The pen is mightier than the sword" was written by a pen making it biased. — Anonymous

He's lying against a bale of hay and talking to his reindeer. That's odd. No, wait - he is singing to his reindeer. That's even odder. — Elise Allen

The truth is that economic competition is the very opposite of competition in the animal kingdom. It is not a competition in the grabbing off of scarce nature-given supplies, as it is in the animal kingdom. Rather, it is a competition in the positive creation of new and additional wealth. — George Reisman

Under capitalism each individual engages in economic planning. — George Reisman

The slaves of socialism are slaves, but they are no one's property and therefore no one's loss. — George Reisman