Monthly Archives: April 2014

Ian Eslick

I used to live above a small pizzeria and I knew the guy who owned the place. He worked 12 hours a day, seven days a week. He was there all the time and worked so hard for his little restaurant. I realized one day that I have to work just as hard for a restaurant as I do it for a multi-billion dollar company. If I have the choice, why not go for the big idea.

Ian Eslick, in Max Finger & Oliver Samwer, America’s Most Successful Startups: Lessons for Entrepreneurs, Wiesbaden, 1998, pp. 9-10

Adolfo Bioy Casares

Cuando concluye el día hago el balance. Si escribí algo no demasiado estúpido, si leí, si fui al cine, si estuve en cama con una mujer, si jugué al tenis, si anduve recorriendo campo a caballo, si inventé una historia o parte de una historia, si reflexioné apropiadamente sobre hechos o dichos, aun si conseguí un dístico, probablemente sienta justificado el día. Cuando todo eso falta, me parece que el día no justifica mi permanencia en el mundo.

Adolfo Bioy Casares, Descanso de caminantes: diarios íntimos, Buenos Aires, 2001, p. 273

Tim Harford

[S]ome companies have scarcity power and can set prices that are far above their true cost, which is where they would be in a competitive market. This is why economists believe there’s an important difference between being in favour of markets and being in favour of business, especially particular businesses. A politician who is in favour of markets believes in the importance of competition and wants to prevent businesses from getting too much scarcity power. A politician who’s too influenced by corporate lobbyists will do exactly the opposite.

Tim Harford, The Undercover Economist, London, 2006, p. 78

William Lane Craig & James Sinclair

Although G. W. F. Leibniz’s question, Why is there (tenselessly) something rather than nothing, should still rightly be asked, there would be no reason to look for a cause of the universe’s beginning to exist, since on tenseless theories of time the universe did not begin to exist in virtue of its having a first event anymore than a meter stick begins to exist in virtue of having a first centimeter.

William Lane Craig & James Sinclair, ‘The kalam Cosmological Argument’, in William Lane Craig & J. P. Moreland (eds.), The Blackwell Companion to Natural Theology, Malden, Massachusetts, p. 184

Nick Cooney

For most people, the goal of any altruistic act is simply to do something helpful. Very few of us choose where to donate, where to volunteer, and how to live our lives based on the answer to the question, “How can I do the most possible good in the world?” And yet it is that calculating attitude that is crucial to helping as many animals (or people) as possible.

Nick Cooney, Veganomics: The Surprising Science on What Motivates Vegetarians, from the Breakfast Table to the Bedroom, Brooklyn, New York, 2014, chap. 1