Competition

They do not know their own literature as Frenchmen and Englishmen know theirs.… The consequent crudity and amateurishness of their criticism of life and letters is their misfortune and not their fault

Power without political competition corrupts absolutely

Under him [Edward Thring] success in examination was not the great object of school training. His care and interest extended beyond the clever boy to the average boy

Most scarcity is artificial … because a prized status has been set up where none existed before

Their initial reaction was the same as that of current law and economics devotees when they are confronted with radical criticism to which they can think of no response

He [Momigliano] would be the unique example in the modern history of classical scholarship of a great male scholar taught by women

In Wahrheit ist es … eine typische und besonders intensive Art und Weise, Politik zu treiben, daß man den Gegner als politisch, sich selbst als unpolitisch hinstellt

Lexicography is about cooperative teamwork and is not suited to competitive individual scholarship

the pendulum of technology leadership swings back and forth between providers

Firth in fact wrote relatively little, but he was active in encouraging his colleagues to publish; he would seize on a topic … and get someone else to work it up