Quoted in:
Actor:
— What about the... Well, you know. Are they gone?
— No, they're not gone. And maybe they never will be. But I've gotten used to ignoring them, and I think they've given up on me. You think that's what it's like with all our dreams and our nightmares, Martin? You've got to keep feeding them for them to stay alive?
— John, they haunt you though.
— They're my past, Martin. Everybody is haunted by their past.
Richard Sol: — Shall we say swords? Pistols at dawn?
Martin Hansen: — Have you remembered nothing? Recall the lessons of Adam Smith... the father of modern economics.
Bender: — "In competition... individual ambition serves the common good."
Ainsley Neilson: — Every man for himself, gentlemen.
Bender: — Those who strike out are stuck with her friends.
<...>
John Nash: — Adam Smith needs revision.
Martin Hansen: — What are you talking about?
John Nash: — If we all go for the blonde... we block each other. Not a single one of us is going to get her. So then we go for her friends... but they will all give us the cold shoulder
because nobody likes to be second choice. Well, what if no one goes for the blonde? We don't get in each other's way... and we don't insult the other girls. That's the only way we win. That's the only way we all get laid. Adam Smith said: "The best result comes from everyone in the group doing what's best for himself." Right. Incomplete. Okay? Because the best result will come from everyone in the group doing what's best for himself... and the group. Governing dynamics. Adam Smith... was wrong.
