Top 1200 Quotes & Sayings by Famous Economists

It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong.

War... is harmful, not only to the conquered but to the conqueror.

The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.

If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there'd be a shortage of sand.

Macroeconomic policy can never be devoid of politics: it involves fundamental trade-offs and affects different groups differently.

Globalization and free trade do spur economic growth, and they lead to lower prices on many goods.

'Emergencies' have always been the pretext on which the safeguards of individual liberty have been eroded.

It is in war that the State really comes into its own: swelling in power, in number, in pride, in absolute dominion over the economy and the society.

Ideas shape the course of history.

It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.

In the absence of the gold standard, there is no way to protect savings from confiscation through inflation. There is no safe store of value.

Wall Street people learn nothing and forget everything.

Making money is a happiness. And that's a great incentive. Making other people happy is a super-happiness.

Debt is one person's liability, but another person's asset.

The Founders knew that a democracy would lead to some kind of tyranny. The term democracy appears in none of our Founding documents. Their vision for us was a Republic and limited government.

For many people, being asked to solve their own retirement savings problems is like being asked to build their own cars.

Putin does not lie. When he says something, he means it.

Economics is a choice between alternatives all the time. Those are the trade-offs.

Anyone who believes exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist.

When goods do not cross borders, soldiers will.

It is true that from a behavioral economics perspective we are fallible, easily confused, not that smart, and often irrational. We are more like Homer Simpson than Superman. So from this perspective it is rather depressing. But at the same time there is also a silver lining. There are free lunches!

It takes collaboration across a community to develop better skills for better lives.

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex... It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.

International cooperation is vital to keeping our globe safe, commerce flowing, and our planet habitable.

I'm not an early morning person.

He flung himself from the room, flung himself upon his horse and rode madly off in all directions.

The invention of the printing press was one of the most important events in human history.

I attended Amherst College from 1951 to 1955. The first two years were a revelation. There were innumerable exchanges with brilliant classmates, among them the playwright Ralph Allen, the classics scholar Robert Fagles, and the composer Michael Sahl.

E-commerce is a powerful means to connect the unconnected to global trade.

The power of population is indefinitely greater than the power in the earth to produce subsistence for man.

Many of the genetically modified foods will be safe, I'm sure. Will most of them be safe? Nobody knows.

Let no man imagine that he has no influence. Whoever he may be, and wherever he may be placed, the man who thinks becomes a light and a power.

Economics is everywhere, and understanding economics can help you make better decisions and lead a happier life.

Finance is not merely about making money. It's about achieving our deep goals and protecting the fruits of our labor. It's about stewardship and, therefore, about achieving the good society.

In trying times, I like to remember that you have to keep walking because you can't see what is around the corner.

There can be no rise in the value of labour without a fall of profits.

It is the aim of good government to stimulate production, of bad government to encourage consumption.

All knowledge of cultural reality, as may be seen, is always knowledge from particular points of view.

Bureaucracy is not an obstacle to democracy but an inevitable complement to it.

My fellow economists and academics fail to understand the economics of trade in the real world. Traditional models of academia respect free trade without considering whether it is fair trade.

Globalization was a deep trend pushed by technology and right ideas, as much as anything else.

Strong government doesn't mean simply military power or an efficient intelligence apparatus. Instead, it should mean effective, fair administration - in other words, 'good governance.'

If you're not making some mistakes, it probably means you're not trying hard enough.

As a general rule, it is foolish to do just what other people are doing, because there are almost sure to be too many people doing the same thing.

Conspicuous consumption of valuable goods is a means of reputability to the gentleman of leisure.

We shall never change our political leaders until we change the people who elect them.

What I'm pushing for is an economic discipline that will be closer to other social sciences; in particular, we should be more pragmatic about the methods that we are using instead of pretending that we have our own scientific apparatus with very sophisticated mathematic models that distinguish us from sociologists and historians.

When we rebuild a house, we are rebuilding a home. When we recover from disaster, we are rebuilding lives and livelihoods.

Government spending is taxation. When you look at this, I've never heard of a poor person spending himself into prosperity; let alone I've never heard of a poor person taxing himself into prosperity.

Corporate social responsibility is measured in terms of businesses improving conditions for their employees, shareholders, communities, and environment. But moral responsibility goes further, reflecting the need for corporations to address fundamental ethical issues such as inclusion, dignity, and equality.

The Roman arena was technically a level playing field. But on one side were the lions with all the weapons, and on the other the Christians with all the blood. That's not a level playing field. That's a slaughter. And so is putting people into the economy without equipping them with capital, while equipping a tiny handful of people with hundreds and thousands of times more than they can use.

No one should expect the value of their house to appreciate quickly - counting on your home to be a significant part of your retirement saving isn't a winning strategy - but it is reasonable to expect that prices generally will rise with at least the rate of inflation for some time to come.

The purpose of studying economics is not to acquire a set of ready-made answers to economic questions, but to learn how to avoid being deceived by economists.

In 1963 and later papers, I pointed out that the special market characteristics of medical care and medical insurance could be explained by reference to differences in information among the parties involved.

If you go back to the really long-run questions that interested me, the big question was why, over the centuries, the millennia, has growth been speeding up?

When deeds speak, words are nothing.

The basic idea that incentives can be used to motivate behavior is a powerful one. It works for employees, and it has a clear place in parenting, as anyone who has tried to potty-train a recalcitrant toddler with sticker rewards knows.

In the history of the world, no one has ever washed a rented car.

There is an old tool that has become very handy that is called strategic patience, which is do not overreact in the short-term. Take your time. See what is the underlying, real message. And then, once the reality is represented by actions, then decide how you are going to react to those actions.

A government debt is a government claim against personal income and private property - an unpaid tax bill.