Alfred Marshall

The functions of the state are to maintain law and order, to provide for national defence, and to promote the general welfare.

The advantages of state intervention are increased efficiency, reduced cost, and improved quality.

The disadvantages of state intervention are bureaucracy, corruption, and inefficiency.

The ideal state is one in which there is a perfect balance between individual liberty and social control.

The ultimate goal of economic progress is the improvement of the human condition.

The study of economics is not merely a study of wealth, but a study of man.

The economist must be a man of wide sympathies and keen observation.

The economist must be a master of both abstract reasoning and concrete facts.

The economist must be a lover of truth and a hater of falsehood.

The economist must be a man of courage and independence.

Economics is a study of mankind in the ordinary business of life; it examines that part of individual and social action which is most closely connected with the attainment and with the use of the material requisites of wellbeing.

The most valuable of all capital is that invested in human beings.

Civilized man has an instinct that bids him seek for the good things of life; but he has not an instinct that bids him seek for the means of obtaining them.

The want of money is the root of all evil.

In almost every economic problem consumption is the end and production the means.

The study of economics does not seem to require any special knowledge of the kind which is called technical or professional.

Progress is the law of life.

The economist who studies the distribution of wealth must be careful not to forget that the ultimate object of all economic effort is the wellbeing of human beings.

Supply and demand are the essence of economics.

The forces of the market are like the forces of nature; they are always at work.