John Maynard Keynes
Most influential economist of the 20th century
Most quoted
"The master-economist must possess a rare combination of gifts. He must be mathematician, historian, statesman, philosopher—in some degree. He must understand symbols and speak in words. He must contemplate the particular in terms of the general, and touch the abstract and the concrete in the same flight of thought. He must study the present in the light of the past for the purposes of the future. No part of man's nature or his institutions must lie entirely outside his regard. He must be purposeful and disinterested in a simultaneous mood; as aloof and incorruptible as an artist, yet sometimes as near the earth as a politician."
— from Alfred Marshall, 1842-1924
"The master-economist must possess a rare combination of gifts. He must be mathematician, historian, statesman, philosopher—in some degree. He must understand symbols and speak in words. He must contemplate the particular in terms of the general, and touch abstract and concrete in the same flight of thought. He must study the present in the light of the past for the purposes of the future. No part of man's nature or his institutions must lie entirely outside his regard. He must be purposeful and disinterested in a simultaneous mood; as aloof and incorruptible as an artist, yet sometimes as near the earth as a politician."
— from Alfred Marshall, 1842-1924, 1933
"The master-economist must possess a rare combination of gifts. He must be a mathematician, historian, statesman, philosopher—in some degree. He must understand symbols and speak in words. He must contemplate the particular in terms of the general, and touch abstract and concrete in the same flight of thought. He must study the present in the light of the past for the purposes of the future. No part of man's nature or his institutions must lie entirely outside his regard. He must be purposeful and disinterested in a single mood; as aloof and incorruptible as an artist, yet sometimes as near the earth as a politician."
— from Alfred Marshall, 1842-1924, 1924
All quotes by John Maynard Keynes (300)
The economic machine is not a self-regulating mechanism.
The economic system is not a machine which, once set in motion, will automatically produce the desired results.
The economic system is not a natural phenomenon, but a human institution.
The economic system is not a perfect mechanism, but a flawed one.
The economic system is not a static entity, but a dynamic one.
The economic system is not a simple system, but a complex one.
The economic system is not a closed system, but an open one.
The economic system is not a deterministic system, but a probabilistic one.
The economic system is not a linear system, but a non-linear one.
In the long run we are all dead.
The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping from old ones.
Words ought to be a little wild, for they are the assault of thoughts on the unthinking.
Markets can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent.
The importance of money flows from it being a link between the present and the future.
Animal spirits: the spontaneous urge to action rather than inaction.
If you owe your bank a hundred pounds, you have a problem. But if you owe a million, it has.
Lenin is said to have declared that the best way to destroy the capitalist system was to debauch the currency.
By a continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens.
There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency.
The process of wealth transfer through inflation is essentially theft.
Contemporaries of John Maynard Keynes
Other Economicss born within 50 years of John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946).