"Mastery is often simply staying on the path"

--- Richard Strozzi-Heckler, In Search of the Warrior Spirit: Teaching Awareness Disciplines to the Green Berets

Context (for more see Google Books, p. 75 )

"It looks easy, so why can't I do it?" When Andrews asks me this question he's reflecting the idealism and certainly [sic] of post-Second World War America, that any obstacle can be overcome by the step-by-step application of will, reason, sweat, and if necessary, massed force. As they struggle to learn this powerful but subtle martial art [aikido] they're having face a fundamental tenet of the warrior's path. They're learning that the path of the warrior is lifelong, and that mastery is often simply staying on the path.

"Doing econometrics is like trying to learn the laws of electricity by playing the radio"

--- Economist Guy Orcutt, cited by Edward Leamer in “Let’s take the con out of econometrics” (PDF), American Economic Review 73(1), March 1983

Dictators ... rarely fall because they have too many enemies. They fall because they have too few friends left.

--- Banyan opinion column, The Economist, August 15th 2009, a paraphrase of the conclusions of Marcus Mietzner's conclusions in Military Politics, Islam and the State in Indonesia: From Turbulent Transition to Democratic Consolidation (2008)

In full: "In the end, dictators, however unpopular, despotic and incompetent, rarely fall because they have too many enemies. They fall because they have too few friends left."