Demography
Politics
Economics
Life and Learning






Immigration is the sincerest form of flattery.
Population control is a form of arms control.
Malthusians have always predicted too much doom too soon. But they're not wrong in principle because the laws of the market have only qualified the laws of physics, not superseded them.




Breast-beating is a form of chest-thumping.
Representativeness conduces to power.
Ambition craves jurisdiction.
Many a hard nose has prefaced a soft mind.
Neither liberals nor conservatives have a monopoly on the truth. But conservatives are more likely to realize it.
The Constitution is not a blank check to posterity.




If an ounce of something is good, it doesn't mean that a ton of it is better.
Conversely, if a ton of something is bad, it doesn't mean that an ounce of it is bad.
If it's not worth doing, it's not worth overdoing.
If it's a commons, people will overuse it.
The only thing worse than being exploited is not being exploited.
The invisible hand is not the one that changes most diapers.
If assumptions were horses, economists would ride.




Ontology recapitulates philology.
You can't marry everyone you love.
My students were put on earth for my amusement and enlightenment--and I for theirs.
My colleagues, by contrast, were put on earth to be my straight men.
The moms get younger every year.
Having a cause enlarges you.
Every adventure is a reconnaissance for the next one.
You're only middle-aged once.
Nothing is either true or false but alternatives make it so.
Life is like Latin. If it were easy, the teacher would not have assigned it.