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 problem of unemployment is primarily a problem of effective demand.
Speculators may do no harm as bubbles on a steady stream of enterprise. But the position is serious when enterprise becomes the bubble on a whirlpool of speculation.
The economic problem, the struggle for subsistence, always has been hitherto the primary, most pressing problem of the human race—not only of the human race, but of the whole of the biological kingdom from the beginnings of life in its most primitive forms.
The avoidance of the great evils of unemployment and excessive inequality are the main tasks of the modern state.
The whole object of the accumulation of wealth is to produce a better life for all.
The economic problem is not a permanent problem of the human race.
The state should be the ultimate employer.
The individual decision to save does not necessarily lead to an increase in investment.
The fundamental psychological law, upon which we are entitled to depend with great confidence both a priori from our knowledge of human nature and from the detailed facts of experience, is that men are disposed, as a rule and on the average, to increase their consumption as their income increases, but not by as much as the increase in their income.
The economic system is not self-regulating.
The future is not what it used to be.
I am afraid that the world is not yet ready for the truth.
I have been trying to think what I really believe, and I have come to the conclusion that I don't believe in anything very much.
I am not a Socialist, but I am not a Liberal either. I am a Keynesian.
The State is not a club of individuals, but a community of communities.
I want to be able to say that I have done something to make the world a better place.
I feel that I am an outsider, and I always have been.
I am not a pacifist, but I am against war.
The power of vested interests is always a formidable obstacle to change.
I have come to the conclusion that the only way to be happy is to be useful.
Contemporaries of John Maynard Keynes
Other Economicss born within 50 years of John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946).