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"The truth is that empire has been the world’s most common form of political organisation for the last 2,500 years. Most humans during these two and a half millennia have lived in empires. Empire is also a very stable form of government."
هل الاستقرار هو المعيار الوحيد لنجاح الإمبراطوريات، أم أن هناك عوامل أخرى مثل العدالة والرفاه؟

For thousands of years, philosophers, thinkers and prophets have besmirched money and called it the root of all evil. Be that as it may, money is also the apogee of human tolerance. Money is more open-minded than language, state laws, cultural codes, religious beliefs and social habits.

In fact, even today coins and banknotes are a rare form of money. In 2006, the sum total of money in the world is about $60 trillion, yet the sum total of coins and banknotes was less than $6 trillion.7 More than 90 per cent of all money –more than $50 trillion appearing in our accounts �� exists only on computer servers.

Romanticism tells us that in order to make the most of our human potential we must have as many di􀊃erent experiences as we can. We must open ourselves to a wide spectrum of emotions; we must sample various kinds of relationships; we must try di􀊃erent cuisines; we must learn to appreciate di􀊃erent styles of music.

"One of history’s few iron laws is that luxuries tend to become necessities and to spawn new obligations. Once people get used to a certain luxury, they take it for granted. Then they begin to count on it. Finally they reach a point where they can’t live without it."