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 Treasury is the most powerful of all departments, and its influence is constantly increasing.
It is characteristic of the Treasury to be too clever by half.
The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest amount of feathers with the least hissing.
If economists could manage to get themselves thought of as humble, competent people on a level with dentists, that would be splendid!
Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.
Ideas shape the course of history.
The central controls necessary for the management of money can be handled as easily and efficiently by a small body of men as by a large one.
I am sure that the power of vested interests is vastly exaggerated compared with the gradual encroachment of ideas.
Soon there will be only five kings in the world — the King of England and the four kings of the suit of trumps.
The war has ruined us.
To every one it is obvious that the policy of the government is to make the rich richer and the poor poorer.
The problem of want and poverty and luxury is not a problem of arithmetic.
What we produce now, we enjoy now.
The economic problem is not the problem of scarce resources but of how to use them.
It is not the accumulation of wealth that is the problem, but the distribution.
We shall once more value ends above means and prefer the good to the useful.
On the whole, I think the working hours of the married woman should be limited to 30 hours a week.
The student of economics should be like the student of anatomy, who studies the body without being able to heal the sick.
In the long run, we are all dead.
The difficulty lies not in the new ideas, but in escaping from the old ones, which ramify, for those of us who have had the kind of education most of us have had, into every corner of our minds.
Contemporaries of John Maynard Keynes
Other Economicss born within 50 years of John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946).