The Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word 'crisis.' One brush stroke stands for danger; the other for opportunity. In a crisis, be aware of the danger - but recognize the opportunity.

The easiest period in a crisis situation is actually the battle itself. The most difficult is the period of indecision -- whether to fight or run away. And the most dangerous period is the aftermath. It is then, with all his resources spent and his guard down, that an individual must watch out for dulled reactions and faulty judgment.

The man of thought who will not act is ineffective; the man of action who will not think is dangerous.

Life isn't meant to be easy. It's hard to take being on the top - or on the bottom. I guess I'm something of a fatalist. You have to have a sense of history, I think, to survive some of these things... Life is one crisis after another.

With the current pensions crisis, there is a real danger that we are going to have a generation who, having to pay off their student debts, are unable to save for their own retirement or support their pension-age parents.

When I retire I'm going to spend my evenings by the fireplace going through those boxes. There are things in there that ought to be burned.