298 Quotes by Matt Ridley

A true scientist is bored by knowledge; it is the assault on ignorance that motivates him – the mysteries that previous discoveries have revealed.

Far more than we like to admit, the world is to a remarkable extent a self-organising, self-changing place.

The traditional university will surely be gone in fifty years, swept away by technology.

I forecast that the twenty-first century will show a continuing expansion of catallaxy – Hayek’s word for spontaneous order created by exchange and specialisation.

Specialisation encouraged innovation, because it encouraged the investment of time in a tool-making tool. That saved time, and prosperity is simply time saved, which is proportional to the division of labour.

It reminds us that the genome, great book that it is, may give us the bleakest kind of self-knowledge: the knowledge of our destiny, not the kind of knowledge that you can do something about, but the curse of Tiresias.

Though politicians are regarded as scum, government as a machine is held to be almost infallible.

Morality therefore emerged as a consequence of certain aspects of human nature in response to social conditions.

Prosperity has brought complications. Our lives are busier, faster, more stressful. They’re nostalgic for a simpler, slower time.