“Life would be very pleasant if it were not for its enjoyments.”

Source: The Prime Minister (1876), Ch. 6

&quot; My Philanthropic Pledge http://givingpledge.org/pdf/letters/Buffett_Letter.pdf&quot; at the The Giving Pledge (2010) <br class="br">Context: Some material things make my life more enjoyable; many, however, would not. I like having an expensive private plane, but owning a half-dozen homes would be a burden. Too often, a vast collection of possessions ends up possessing its owner. The asset I most value, aside from health, is interesting, diverse, and long-standing friends.<br>My wealth has come from a combination of living in America, some lucky genes, and compound interest. Both my children and I won what I call the ovarian lottery. (For starters, the odds against my 1930 birth taking place in the U. S. were at least 30 to 1. My being male and white also removed huge obstacles that a majority of Americans then faced.) My luck was accentuated by my living in a market system that sometimes produces distorted results, though overall it serves our country well. I’ve worked in an economy that rewards someone who saves the lives of others on a battlefield with a medal, rewards a great teacher with thank-you notes from parents, but rewards those who can detect the mispricing of securities with sums reaching into the billions. In short, fate’s distribution of long straws is wildly capricious.<br>The reaction of my family and me to our extraordinary good fortune is not guilt, but rather gratitude. Were we to use more than 1% of my claim checks on ourselves, neither our happiness nor our well-being would be enhanced. In contrast, that remaining 99% can have a huge effect on the health and welfare of others. That reality sets an obvious course for me and my family: Keep all we can conceivably need and distribute the rest to society, for its needs. My pledge starts us down that course.

On courting his wife, as quoted in a review of his Memoirs — &quot;Born to Be Mild&quot; by David Brooks in The New York Times (20 October 2002) http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E03E4D6163AF933A15753C1A9649C8B63&amp;sec=&amp;spon=&amp;pagewanted=all

"Where Desert Spirits Crowd the Night", p. 289
The Ivory and the Horn (1996)

May 1776
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol III

Books on Religion and Christianity, I am the Truth. Toward a philosophy of Christianity (1996)
Source: Michel Henry, I am the Truth. Toward a Philosophy of Christianity, translated by Susan Emanuel, Stanford University Press, 2003, p. 30

Sir Roger Q And A For December 2015 http://roger-moore.com/sir-roger-q-and-a-for-december-2015/ (2 December 2015)

Quote translated from his German book: Wer bin ich – und wenn ja, wie viele? Eine philosophische Reise, Goldmann, München 2007, ISBN 3-442-31143-8