“Another narrow waterway, another crisis that will join the forgotten worries of Hadrian and Trajan in the dust.”

“The universe contains infinite worlds powered by infinite suns, yet men still fight over the lamp oil of a single star.”

“That a few men can strangle the world's commerce at a choke point proves the absurdity of our present arrangements.”

“Any prince who bases his prosperity on a single, easily severed artery has already lost his state.”

“All I know is what I read in the papers: the world's economy runs on a thread some folks are mighty eager to snip.”

“Fear of empty ships on a narrow sea is but the shadow cast by a misunderstanding of nature's abundant mechanics.”

“The vessel's usefulness lies in its emptiness, not in the frantic efforts to keep it perpetually full.”

“We have built an iron house whose only window is a narrow strait, and now we fear the dark.”

“Study the whirlpool that forms where the narrow channel restricts the flow, and you will understand the coming turbulence.”

“This crisis reveals a character formed by dependence, not the sturdy self-reliance that builds a moral society.”

“'Major energy crisis' - a phrase that performs the very paralysis it describes, a syntax of helplessness.”

“This blockage in the world's vital humors reflects a greater disquiet in the celestial spheres.”

“One observes the same precariousness in a mountain pass controlled by brigands as in this maritime pinch-point.”

“Count the ships, count the barrels, count the pretexts, and the pattern of profiteering emerges from the isolated incident.”

“They built their whole world on a road they can close, just as they built their humanity on a definition that excluded me.”