Bandits (bottom right), who pursue their own self-interest even when doing so poses a net detriment to societal welfare.

Law #1 Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation.

Law #2 The probability that a certain person (will) be stupid is independent of any other characteristic of that person.

Law #3 A stupid person is a person who causes losses to another person or to a group of persons while himself deriving no gain and even possibly incurring losses.

Law #4 Non-stupid people always underestimate the damaging power of stupid individuals. In particular non-stupid people constantly forget that at all times and places and under any circumstances to deal and/or associate with stupid people always turns out to be a costly mistake.

Law #5 A stupid person is the most dangerous type of person.

A stupid person is more dangerous than a pillager.

Two factors are important to consider when exploring human behaviour: Benefits and losses that an individual causes to: 1. him or herself and 2. to others.

Intelligent people (top right), who contribute to society and who leverage their contributions into reciprocal benefits.

Helpless people (top left), who contribute to society but are taken advantage of by it (and especially by the "bandit" sector of it); note, however, that extreme altruists and pacifists may willingly and consciously (rather than helplessly) accept a place in this category for moral or ethical reasons.

Stupid people (bottom left), whose efforts are counterproductive to both their and others' interests.

Money is a good servant but a bad master.

When I started graduate school I was interested in the culture of the Civil Rights Movement.

The Central Bank should have a permanent window for discounting high quality securities where banks could go and discount these. It gives peace of mind to the banks. In the absence of this facility, what banks tend to do is to keep a liquidity cushion for emergency requirements. This is a very expensive way of managing liquidity.

Death, only, renders hope futile.

Those who knew Lincoln described him as an extraordinarily funny man. Humor was an essential aspect of his temperament. He laughed, he explained, so he did not weep.

I remember, when I was a little kid, I was good at sports, and I could jump off the high board. And then puberty hit, and suddenly I was looking to boys for direction. I remember that as a great loss.

A great man may be the personification and type of the epoch for which God destines him, but he is never its creator.

To me, what philosophy does best is reflect on knowledge that's generated in other areas.

Never in my short career, I've never had that experience where I wasn't sure if I was acting or if it was real.

The spirit of the gospel is optimistic; it trusts in God and looks on the bright side of things. The opposite or pessimistic spirit drags men down and away from God, looks on the dark side, murmurs, complains, and is slow to yield obedience.

I think daycare is great for people who have to work two jobs. My problem is with people who are dropping kids off at daycare because they want to go out and spend the day golfing or getting their nails done. You know what I mean? That's not why they invented daycare.

I won't be able to live without my guitar, my phone or my boots on tour.

The prediction that glaciers will be gone from Glacier National Park has been moved up by 10 years to 2020, the same year it's predicted the Arctic Sea will be ice-free in the summer.

We should not have assumed that a political space station could be built.

Get used to a rough life, for luxury does not last forever.

Different astronauts sleep in different ways.

There is no way to happiness - happiness is the way.

Everyone brings their own particular skill set to the job, and acting training can work for a lot of actors, and it can't. I've seen a lot of really good actors go into acting schools and then come out a little bit corrupted.

At 15 I auditioned for 42nd Street in Australia. Dein Perry was in that show. I actually got the job but I couldn't do it because I was only 15. Legally I needed to have another 15-year-old to cover consecutive nights.

Obama's health care plan will be written by a committee whose head, John Conyers, says he doesn't understand it. It'll be passed by Congress that has not read it, signed by a president who smokes, funded by a Treasury chief who didn't pay his taxes, overseen by a Surgeon General who is obese, and financed by a country that's nearly broke. What could possibly go wrong?

Sunday's my day off, where I eat whatever I want. I don't not let myself have something. I do love French fries and bread.

In a state therefore of great equality and virtue, where pure and simple manners prevailed, the increase of the human species would evidently be much greater than any increase that has been hitherto known.

Man's real life is happy, chiefly because he is ever expecting that it soon will be so.

I never did a convention before I did 'The Hobbit.'