How could I bring myself to be a Conservative? They offer me neither food nor drink—neither intellectual nor spiritual consolation. I should not be a… - John Maynard Keynes

They offer me neither food nor drink — intellectual nor spiritual consolation... [Conservatism] leads nowhere; it satisfies no ideal; it conforms to no intellectual standard, it is not safe, or calculated to preserve from the spoilers that degree of civilisation which we have already attained.

He regarded the universe as a cryptogram set by the Almighty - just
as he himself wrapt the discovery of the calculus in a cryptogram when he communicated with Leibniz.

When the final result is expected to be a compromise, it is often prudent to start from an extreme position.

By a continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens. By this method they not only confiscate, but they confiscate arbitrarily; and, while the process impoverishes many, it actually enriches some.