Eine Billion Dollar Quotes

“Let me put it this way: if someone still thinks that a single country can withstand the influence of multinational corporations, then it’s about time for him to wake up and smell the coffee.”
― Andreas Eschbach, One Trillion Dollars: An absolutely gripping page turning thriller about a man who inherits a life-changing fortune

“Some multinational corporations have become mightier than many countries. In effect, the old principles of national sovereignty have become obsolete. What we need is a transnational power, capable of establishing law and order at a global level.” Kofi Annan looked at John with even more concern writ large on his face. “Surely you don’t mean the United Nations?” he asked. “No,” said John Fontanelli, “I don’t mean the United Nations.”
― Andreas Eschbach, One Trillion Dollars: An absolutely gripping page turning thriller about a man who inherits a life-changing fortune

“Take nuclear power as an example. Regardless of all arguments for and against the use of nuclear power, which are usually dominated by emotions rather than nourished by rational thought, it is a fact that not even a single civilian nuclear power plant would have been built if the correct calculations had been done. The alleged cheapness of nuclear energy was only cheap as long as the cost of disposal of highly contaminated waste was left out of the calculations. Since nuclear power was politically desirable, they knew they could palm it off on the general public,”
― Andreas Eschbach, One Trillion Dollars: An absolutely gripping page turning thriller about a man who inherits a life-changing fortune

“The definition of gross national product is nonsense, because they don’t put such factors as environmental damage and limited resources into the calculation. In the mean time there is another parameter, the gross domestic product, but this is not much better.”
― Andreas Eschbach, One Trillion Dollars: An absolutely gripping page turning thriller about a man who inherits a life-changing fortune

“Humanity must submit to nature’s wisdom again or it will succumb. That is the only way, Signor Fontanelli,” Josef Valen went on explaining. “But nature’s wisdom is a gruesome one. It has no provisions for pacifism and religions of compassion, it knows only the law of the strong. The strong will overthrow the weak and through victory prove worthiness. The Third Reich was not about conquering other countries; it was about improving mankind itself, assuring the continuity of our kind. Do you understand?”
― Andreas Eschbach, One Trillion Dollars: An absolutely gripping page turning thriller about a man who inherits a life-changing fortune

“Nature throws living beings into this world and they must survive. The weak will perish and the strong will thrive. That is the law of nature, the aristocratic principle of life itself. Nature knows no contraception it knows only overabundance and the destruction of that which is not capable of survival. Only those worthy of surviving, survive. That’s the way nature wants”
― Andreas Eschbach, One Trillion Dollars: An absolutely gripping page turning thriller about a man who inherits a life-changing fortune

“Do you realize that Hitler wanted to the same thing as you?” John gasped. “What do you mean?” “To safeguard humanity’s future, of course! That is the goal he was working for. He knew the world was limited in size that it could not be enough for all and that there must be a fight for space and natural resources. And he had understood that this struggle was natural, that the races had to prove themselves and that it was only this struggle that kept them strong.”
― Andreas Eschbach, One Trillion Dollars: An absolutely gripping page turning thriller about a man who inherits a life-changing fortune

“But if very drastic steps are not taken soon, then I can offer no projection other than a profound, widespread famine and disease beyond your wildest imagination, and in the end an Earth that is bleak, polluted, and exhausted and not worth living on anymore.”
― Andreas Eschbach, One Trillion Dollars: An absolutely gripping page turning thriller about a man who inherits a life-changing fortune

“My conclusions are that your potential influence on the system and its ability to prevent systematic collapse are insufficient. To put it bluntly: you don’t have enough power.”
― Andreas Eschbach, One Trillion Dollars: An absolutely gripping page turning thriller about a man who inherits a life-changing fortune

“For me this means you can stick all those smart plans and projections and trend analyses into a garbage can. Whatever will happen, will happen, and all the really important events in this century surprised all the soothsayers and analysts. When you look at old projections from, say, fifty years ago or more you have to laugh. Practically nothing happened as predicted.” She put a hand on his arm. “That’s why I tell you that it is nothing but bullshit. The prophecy is bullshit. The human race having lost its future … bullshit.”
― Andreas Eschbach, One Trillion Dollars: An absolutely gripping page turning thriller about a man who inherits a life-changing fortune

“For endless minutes he crawled after them wondering why the hell he was working his ass off to save humanity. Humanity? Weren’t most people like those two fools ahead? Brainless cattle. That's whose future he was trying to save? Evolution, or just a coincidence, might have brought forth a couple of people who might be worth the effort but most were just a waste of space.”
― Andreas Eschbach, One Trillion Dollars: An absolutely gripping page turning thriller about a man who inherits a life-changing fortune

“That life isn't some difficult, complicated thing. You live, you love, and you laugh, and you cry when you need to.” “People have done that for eons, and if we keep it up there won’t be any more people within a few decades.” He shook his head. “No, that’s not the answer.”
― Andreas Eschbach, One Trillion Dollars: An absolutely gripping page turning thriller about a man who inherits a life-changing fortune

“think I would spend it. I would invest it in projects to create economic equality for women all over the world. Women are the key. Many of our projects have convinced us this is true, and it’s been a known fact for my colleagues at the World Bank. Everywhere where women are educated and are free enough to decide what happens in their own lives the birthrates drop to an acceptable level. Everywhere women own property instead of being property themselves, the standard of living rises to a level where people can afford to consider environmental issues. In many aid programs, it’s the women who receive the money too, because they improve things with it, while the men only get drunk or buy gold watches.”
― Andreas Eschbach, One Trillion Dollars: An absolutely gripping page turning thriller about a man who inherits a life-changing fortune

“The actual explosives are the slower developments, like an increasing world population, increased industrialization, climate change, and so forth.”
― Andreas Eschbach, One Trillion Dollars: An absolutely gripping page turning thriller about a man who inherits a life-changing fortune

“Your friend, or whatever it is you see in him, is the prototype of a true loser if I ever saw one. He never did anything with his life and he never will. Forget him, John, as fast as possible. Avoid any and all contact with him. Losers are dangerous to people with important goals, believe me. You can be the most competent person on earth, but if you have losers around you, you won’t achieve anything. They pull you down and mess up your plans and get into your way at crucial moments. They poison your life like a contagious disease — they might even be a disease.”
― Andreas Eschbach, One Trillion Dollars: An absolutely gripping page turning thriller about a man who inherits a life-changing fortune

“The only thing you must keep from them is the fact that what we are aiming at is virtual global hegemony, McCaine had warned him. Be modest.”
― Andreas Eschbach, One Trillion Dollars: An absolutely gripping page turning thriller about a man who inherits a life-changing fortune

“Every idiot invests in Internet bookkeeping and software firms these days. That’s how you can earn millions on companies that aren’t earning a cent of profit,” McCaine said. “But when you get down to the essence of it then only things like energy, raw materials, food, and water have true value.”
― Andreas Eschbach, One Trillion Dollars: An absolutely gripping page turning thriller about a man who inherits a life-changing fortune

“My leverage was that I knew that you knew my abilities and your own inabilities. That I did not mention these two facts strengthened my situation. You didn’t know what I would do, but you knew what I could do. Those arguments I presented were correct, but not crucial. What was crucial was the balance of power between us at that moment.”
― Andreas Eschbach, One Trillion Dollars: An absolutely gripping page turning thriller about a man who inherits a life-changing fortune

“An elementary rule concerning contracts is that you let it wait. You faced a fait accompli, and you can’t do a deal on a fait accompli. I was able to wait until you were in a position where you couldn’t simply get up and leave. But when you enter negotiations without this option — the option of getting up without signing — then you are automatically in a weak position.”
― Andreas Eschbach, One Trillion Dollars: An absolutely gripping page turning thriller about a man who inherits a life-changing fortune

“The success of every company depends on its employees. You might think that is the best kept secret in the economy, but it really is no secret. Everybody will tell you that, but hardly anyone understands it. It is especially the people looking for work who don’t understand. If they did the world of labor would be a different place.”
― Andreas Eschbach, One Trillion Dollars: An absolutely gripping page turning thriller about a man who inherits a life-changing fortune

“Things look different in real life. In real life only food and energy count. Did you know that the world reserves of wheat, rice, and other grains are at their lowest level in twenty years?”
― Andreas Eschbach, One Trillion Dollars: An absolutely gripping page turning thriller about a man who inherits a life-changing fortune

“And in the world of power you have to follow the rules of power, and whether you like it or not, one of these rules is to brag. You must impress others, show them their place. You have to become the biggest gorilla in the pack, the alpha male who is followed by everyone else.”
― Andreas Eschbach, One Trillion Dollars: An absolutely gripping page turning thriller about a man who inherits a life-changing fortune

“Because he knew money was power. And because he, however he came upon the idea, knew that there would have to be someone to make a change in the distant future.”
― Andreas Eschbach, One Trillion Dollars: An absolutely gripping page turning thriller about a man who inherits a life-changing fortune

“For the moment, Mr. Fontanelli, your trillion is nothing but a pile of money that’s lying around uselessly. But if you use it to gain economic influence, you may be able to force the world to change!”
― Andreas Eschbach, One Trillion Dollars: An absolutely gripping page turning thriller about a man who inherits a life-changing fortune

“Nature is cruel,” McCaine countered. “The world is not fair. Justice or fairness would mean balance, but life is out of balance, a network of reciprocally multiplying imbalance, that’s why you have fundamental injustice in income.”
― Andreas Eschbach, One Trillion Dollars: An absolutely gripping page turning thriller about a man who inherits a life-changing fortune

“If you’re poor it will be almost impossible to get a higher education that will allow you to get out of the lowest category. If, on the other hand, you have a fortune it will be far easier to do trade or to start a company than it would if you have to depend on borrowed money. The more money you have the easier it is to make more.”
― Andreas Eschbach, One Trillion Dollars: An absolutely gripping page turning thriller about a man who inherits a life-changing fortune

“In human resource management, an employee who brings in one point three times what he costs is worth his money. In other words an actual yield of thirty percent!”
― Andreas Eschbach, One Trillion Dollars: An absolutely gripping page turning thriller about a man who inherits a life-changing fortune

“My boss would like to work with your boss, and he can be very persuasive.” “Wealth is first a matter of income, and second a matter of spending,” McCaine explained, standing by the window overlooking London. “If you spend more than you earn you will grow poor, and if you earn more than you spend you will grow rich. As far as spending is concerned, you can reduce it only so far — at least if you want to live a normal life in our society. This leaves you with increasing your earnings.”
― Andreas Eschbach, One Trillion Dollars: An absolutely gripping page turning thriller about a man who inherits a life-changing fortune

“You know, I ask myself what wealthy people do all day. What do you do when you aren’t forced to work but still need the feeling that life must have some kind of meaning?”
― Andreas Eschbach, One Trillion Dollars: An absolutely gripping page turning thriller about a man who inherits a life-changing fortune

“Nonsense!” his father explained in bad grace. “It’s a pointless luxury. To own a yacht is like standing in the rain and ripping apart thousand dollar bills, someone once said.”
― Andreas Eschbach, One Trillion Dollars: An absolutely gripping page turning thriller about a man who inherits a life-changing fortune