Economics Quotes
Top 25 Economics Quotes
No 1 (Best quote!)
A nation’s standard of living in the long term depends on its ability to attain a high and rising level of
productivity in the industries in which its firms compete. This rests on the capacity of its firms to achieve
improving quality or greater efficiency.
- Michael Porter, pictured right, in The Competitive Advantage of
Nations (1990)
No 2
There's no such thing as a free lunch.
- Milton Friedman (1912-2006), American economist,
pictured right.
No 3
It’s the economy, stupid 1992 slogan in his presidential campaign.
- Bill Clinton (1946- ), American president, pictured right.
No 4
It's a recession when your neighbour loses his job; it's a depression when you lose yours.
- Harry S. Truman (1884–1972), American
president, pictured right.
Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881), the Scottish writer and philosopher, pictured right, also
comments:
A man willing to work, and unable to find work, is perhaps the saddest sight
No 5
It was as true... as taxes is. And nothing’s truer than them,
(Mr Barkis in David Copperfield)
- Charles Dickens (1812-70),
English writer, pictured right.
Benjamin
Franklin (1706-90), the American politician and philosopher, pictured right, agrees:
Nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes
No 6
The market has no heart.
- Anita
Roddick (1942-2007), founder of the cosmetics retailer, the Body Shop, pictured right,
Michael
Heseltine (1933- ), the British politician (pictured right), says similarly:
The market has no
morality,
No 7
No society can surely be flourishing and happy of which the far greater part of the members are poor and
miserable.
(from the 1776 book The Wealth of Nations)
- Adam Smith (1723-90), Scottish
philosopher, pictured right.
No 8
The Dismal Science [term for economics],
- Thomas Carlyle 1795–1881, Scottish writer and philosopher, pictured right.
No 9
Inflation is the one form of taxation that can be imposed without legislation,
- Milton Friedman (1912-2006), American economist,
pictured right.
No 10
The best way to destroy the capitalist system is to debauch the currency,
- Lenin (1870-1924),
pictured right, Russian leader.
No 11
One cannot have a socially excellent economic system without having an economic
system.
- J.
K. Galbraith, pictured right, Economics and the Public Purpose (1973)
No 12
The ideas of economists and political philosophers,
both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed the world
is ruled by little else.
- John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946), English economist,
pictured right.
No 13
Leadership, therefore, becomes more important than
ever in this new world, and philosophy, or the search for meaning of things, becomes the driving force of
economics.
- Charles
Handy, pictured right, in Beyond Certainty (1995)
No 14
The aim of wealth should not be to blindly produce a
higher GDP but to produce more well-being.
- Martin Seligman (1942- ), American psychologist,
pictured right.
No 15
The democracy will cease to exist when you take away
from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not,
- Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), pictured right, American
president.
No 16
The way to crush the bourgeoisie is to ground them between the millstones of
taxation and inflation.
- Lenin (1870-1924), pictured
right, Russian leader.
No 17
Pennies do not come from heaven. They have to be earned here on earth.
- Margaret
Thatcher (1925-2013), pictured right, British prime minister
No 18
The weaker are always anxious for justice and equality. The strong pay no heed to
either.
- Aristotle (384-322 BC), Greek philosopher, pictured
right.
No 19
The rich should contribute to the public expense,
not only in proportion to their revenue, but something more than in that proportion.
(from the 1776 book The Wealth of
Nations)
- Adam
Smith (1723-90), Scottish philosopher, pictured
right.
No 20
To be free to choose, and not to be chosen for, is an inalienable ingredient in
what makes human beings human.
- Isaiah
Berlin (1909-1997), Russian-born British philosopher, pictured right.
No 21
If a rich man wants to help the poor, he should pay his taxes gladly,
- Clement Attlee (1883-1967), pictured right,
the British prime minister.
No 22
No patriot or man of feeling could therefore oppose
it [growth]. But the nature of this growth... is at once undirected and infinitely self-generating in the endless
demand for all the useless things in the world.
- Adam
Smith (1723-90), Scottish philosopher, pictured
right.
(quoted by Charles Handy, pictured right, in
Beyond Certainty (1995)
No 23
The day is not far off
when the economic problem will take the back seat where it belongs, and the arena of the heart and the head will be
occupied or reoccupied, by our real problems - the problems of life and of human relations, of creation and
behaviour and religion.
- John Maynard Keynes
(1883-1946), English economist, pictured right.
No 24
Money is made possible only by the men who
produce.
- Francisco d’Anconia in Ayn
Rand’s, pictured right, book Atlas
Shrugged (1957).
No 25
The rule is jam tomorrow and jam yesterday - but never jam today.
- the Queen in Lewis Carroll's (pictured right)1871 book Alice Through The
Looking Glass
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