Here I supply a few that I've come across lately (often while reading the Economist) and have struck me by their topicality and impact ...perhaps distinguishing themselves by the fact that they seemingly haven't been plundered yet by the quotations magpies...

Many thanks to the journalists (often from the Economist). One suspects that, like travel writers who leave out their really favourite spots to avoid them becoming inundated, good journalists are really sparing in their usage of the juciest quotes?  

Here goes...

• "How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg? Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg." _ Abraham Lincoln
• "It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong." _ Voltaire
• "The closest to perfection anyone ever comes is when he fills out a job application form."_ Stanley J. Randall
• General Schwartzkopf was asked how it was possible to fight an enemy who was ready and willing to die for his cause.
  His reply: "Accommodate him."
• "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." _ Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931)
• "League is a bash-and-barge game, where people are continually slamming into each other. But when you are laying on the ground you don't get trodden on like you do in union." _ Australian rugby union convert Mat Rogers.
• "Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add but when there is nothing left to take away." _ Antoine de Saint-Exupery
• "The reason a dog has so many friends is that he wags his tail instead of his tongue." _ Anonymous
• "There should be a better way to start a day than waking up every morning." _ Anon
• "Words ought to be a little wild, for they are the assault of thoughts on the unthinking." _ John Maynard Keynes
• "I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other gods you will understand why I dismiss yours." _ Stephen F. Roberts
• "I respect faith, but doubt is what gets you an education." _ Wilson Mizner
• "If you think education is expensive, try ignorance." _ Derek Bok Harvard President
• "If I seem unduly clear to you, you must have misunderstood what I said." _ Alan Greenspan
• "There will be times when you can do nothing but stand back and witness events as they unfold. However, sometimes it's good to know how to put out a grease fire." _ Anon
• "The best way to accelerate a Mac is at 9.8 m/s^2" _ Anon
• If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn't thinking. _ George Patton
• "Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat." _ Sun Tzu
• "Vision is the art of seeing things invisible." _ Jonathan Swift
• "Some men see things as they are and say why. I dream of things that never were and say why not." _ John F. Kennedy
• "Minds are like parachutes, they only function when they are open." _ Sir James Dewar
• "There is nothing more difficult...than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things." _ Niccolo Machiavelli
• "Obstacles are things a person sees when he takes his eyes off his goal." _ E. Joseph Cossman
• "No matter what happens, there's always somebody who knew it would." _ Lonny Starr
• "If, at first, you do succeed, try to hide your astonishment." _ Los Angeles Times Syndicate
• "It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers." _ James Thurber
• "A computer lets you make more mistakes faster than any invention in human history with the possible exceptions of handguns and tequila." _ Mitch Ratliffe
• "When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong." _ Profiles of the Future, 1962
• "I've just heard that Photons have mass. I didn't even know that they were Catholics." _ Don Geddin
• "Never invest your money in anything that eats or needs painting." _ Billy Rose
• "I wouldn't mind being the last man on Earth, just to see if all of those girls were telling the truth." _ Ronnie Shakes
• "After I'm dead I'd rather have people ask why I have no monument than why I have one."_ Cato the Elder
• "Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake." _ Napoleon Bonaparte