If you took all the economists in the world and laid them end-to-end, they couldn’t reach a conclusion.
—Unknown
But while they prate of economic laws, men and women are starving. We must lay hold of the fact that economic laws are not made by nature. They are made by human beings.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945) American Head of State, Lawyer
Recession is when a neighbor loses his job. Depression is when you lose yours.
—Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American Head of State
In economics, hope and faith coexist with great scientific pretension and also a deep desire for respectability.
—John Kenneth Galbraith (1908–2006) Canadian-Born American Economist
Economics and politics are the governing powers of life today, and that’s why everything is so screwy.
—Joseph Campbell (1904–87) American Author, Mythologist
Mere parsimony is not economy…. Expense, and great expense, may be an essential part in true economy…. Economy is a distributive virtue, and consists, not in saving, but in selection. Parsimony requires no providence, no sagacity, no powers of combination, no comparison, no judgment.
—Edmund Burke (1729–97) British Philosopher, Statesman
October. This is one of the peculiarly dangerous months to speculate in stocks. The others are July, January, September, April, November, May, March, June, December, August, and February.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
With the exception only of the period of the gold standard, practically all governments of history have used their exclusive power to issue money to defraud and plunder the people.
—Friedrich Hayek (1899–1992) British Economist, Social Philosopher
Be thrifty, but not covetous.
—George Herbert (1593–1633) Welsh Anglican Poet, Orator, Clergyman
No man is rich whose expenditures exceed his means; and no one is poor whose incomings exceed his outgoings.
—Thomas Chandler Haliburton (1796–1865) Canadian Author, Humorist, Jurist
If all the economists were laid end to end, they would not reach a conclusion.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
No nation was ever ruined by trade.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
I learned more about economics from one South Dakota dust storm than I did in all my years in college.
—Hubert Humphrey (1911–78) American Head of State, Politician
The rate of interest acts as a link between income-value and capital-value.
—Irving Fisher (1867–1947) American Economist, Statistician
Commerce changes the fate and genius of nations.
—Thomas Gray (1716–71) British Poet, Scholar
It seems to be a law in American life that whatever enriches us anywhere except in the wallet inevitably becomes uneconomic.
—Russell Baker (1925–2019) American Journalist, Humorist, Television Host
Give me a one-handed economist! All my economics say, “On the one hand? on the other.”
—Harry S. Truman (1884–1972) American Head of State
Frugality is founded on the principal that all riches have limits.
—Edmund Burke (1729–97) British Philosopher, Statesman
Economic growth may one day turn out to be a curse rather than a good, and under no conditions can it either lead into freedom or constitute a proof for its existence.
—Hannah Arendt (1906–75) German-American Philosopher, Political Theorist
In our time, the curse is monetary illiteracy, just as inability to read plain print was the curse of earlier centuries.
—Ezra Pound (1885-1972) American Poet, Translator, Critic
Scarcity creates value.
—Seth Godin (b.1960) American Entrepreneur
I am indeed rich, since my income is superior to my expenses, and my expense is equal to my wishes.
—Edward Gibbon (1737–94) English Historian, Politician
In a society of little economic development, universal inactivity accompanies universal poverty. You survive not by struggling against nature, or by increasing production, or by relentless labor; instead you survive by expending as little energy as possible, by striving constantly to achieve a state of immobility.
—Ryszard Kapuscinski (1932–2007) Polish Journalist
We might come closer to balancing the Budget if all of us lived closer to the Commandments and the Golden Rule.
—Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American Head of State
If your outgo exceeds your income your upkeep will be your downfall.
—Anonymous
In the usual (though certainly not in every) public decision on economic policy, the choice is between courses that are almost equally good or equally bad. It is the narrowest decisions that are most ardently debated. If the world is lucky enough to enjoy peace, it may even one day make the discovery, to the horror of doctrinaire free-enterprisers and doctrinaire planners alike, that what is called capitalism and what is called socialism are both capable of working quite well.
—John Kenneth Galbraith (1908–2006) Canadian-Born American Economist
My other piece of advice, Copperfield, said Mr. Micawber, you know. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery. The blossom is blighted, the leaf is withered, the god of day goes down upon the dreary scene, and – and in short you are for ever floored. As I am!
—Charles Dickens (1812–70) English Novelist
Commerce has set the mark of selfishness, the signet of its all-enslaving power, upon a shining ore, and called it gold: before whose image bow the vulgar great, the vainly rich, the miserable proud, the mob of peasants, nobles, priests, and kings, and with blind feelings reverence the power that grinds them to the dust of misery.
—Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) English Poet, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist
Commerce flourishes by circumstances, precarious, transitory, contingent, almost as the winds and waves that bring it to our shores.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
A nation is not in danger of financial disaster merely because it owes itself money.
—Andrew W. Mellon (1855–1937) American Financier, Philanthropist
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