A retired physicist reading the Encyclopedia Britannica can do just so much toward securing world peace. - Brian Hayes

The condensation of all property in the hands of one individual is an economic catastrophe-something like the formation of a black hole in astrophysics. It's obviously bad news for the majority of the people, who are left penniless. But even if you happen to be the big winner, your victory may prove hollow. Although you have all the riches in the world, you can't buy a thing, because no one else has goods to sell.

I'm not a mathematician, but I've been hanging around with some of them long enough to know how the game is played.

The fact is, winding and dusting and fixing somebody else's clock is boring.