Superfluity creates necessity, and necessity superfluity. Take care to be an economist in prosperity: there is no fear of your being one in adversity.
—Johann Georg Ritter von Zimmermann (1728–95) Swiss Philosophical Writer, Naturalist, Physician
The science hangs like a gathering fog in a valley, a fog which begins nowhere and goes nowhere, an incidental, unmeaning inconvenience to passers-by.
—H. G. Wells (1866–1946) English Novelist, Historian, Social Thinker
No nation was ever ruined by trade.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
It’s a recession when your neighbor loses his job; it’s a depression when you lose your own.
—Harry S. Truman (1884–1972) American Head of State
There can be no economy where there is no efficiency.
—Benjamin Disraeli (1804–81) British Head of State
In economics the majority is always wrong.
—John Kenneth Galbraith (1908–2006) Canadian-Born American Economist
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
Few are sufficiently sensible of the importance of that economy in reading which selects, almost exclusively, the very first order of books. Why, except for some special reason, read an inferior book, at the very time you might be reading one of the highest order?
—John W. Foster
If one could divine the nature of the economic forces in the world, one could foretell the future.
—Robert Heilbroner (1919–2005) American Economist, Historian
The study of economy usually shows us that the best time for purchase was last year.
—Woody Allen (b.1935) American Film Actor, Director
Men talk in raptures of youth and beauty, wit and sprightliness; but after seven years of union, not one of them is to be compared to good family management, which is seen at every meal, and felt every hour in the husband’s purse.
—John Witherspoon (1723–94) Scottish-American Presbyterian Theologian
Economy is in itself a great source of revenue.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
The man who will live above his present circumstances, is in great danger of soon living much beneath them; or as the Italian proverb says, “The man that lives by hope, will die by despair.”
—Joseph Addison (1672–1719) English Essayist, Poet, Playwright, Politician
Economic progress, in capitalist society, means turmoil.
—Joseph Schumpeter (1883–1950) Austrian-American Political Economist, Sociologist
Economic growth without social progress lets the great majority of people remain in poverty, while a privileged few reap the benefits of rising abundance.
—John F. Kennedy (1917–63) American Head of State, Journalist
The regard one shows economy, is like that we show an old aunt, who is to leave us something at last.
—William Shenstone (1714–63) British Poet, Landscape Gardener
A man’s ordinary expenses ought to be but to the half of his receipts, and if he think to wax rich, but to the third part.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
Economy has frequently nothing whatever to do with the amount of money being spent, but with the wisdom used in spending it.
—Henry Ford (1863–1947) American Businessperson, Engineer
Proportion and propriety are among the best secrets of domestic wisdom; and there is no surer test of integrity than a well-proportioned expenditure.
—Hannah More
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
Let honesty and industry be thy constant companions, and spend one penny less than thy clear gains; then shall thy pocket begin to thrive; creditors will not insult, nor want oppress, nor hunger bite, nor nakedness freeze thee.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
Not to be covetous, is money; not to be a purchaser, is a revenue.
—Cicero (106BCE–43BCE) Roman Philosopher, Orator, Politician, Lawyer
He who is taught to live upon little owes more to his father’s wisdom than he that has a great deal left him does to his father’s care.
—William Penn (1644–1718) American Entrepreneur, Philosopher, Political Leader
The injury of prodigality leads to this, that he that will not economize will have to agonize.
—Confucius (551–479 BCE) Chinese Philosopher
The rate of interest acts as a link between income-value and capital-value.
—Irving Fisher (1867–1947) American Economist, Statistician
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
No gain is so certain as that which proceeds from the economical use of what you already have.
—Latin Proverb
There can be economy only where there is efficiency.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
The habit of saving is itself an education; it fosters every virtue, teaches self-denial, cultivates the sense of order, trains to forethought, and so broadens the mind.
—Theodore T. Munger (1830–1910) American Clergyman, Theologian
Waste cannot be accurately told, though we are sensible how destructive it is. Economy on the one hand, by which a certain income is made to maintain a man genteelly; and waste on the other, by which, on the same income, another man lives shabbily, cannot be defined. It is a very nice thing; as one man wears his coat out much sooner than another, we cannot tell how.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Leave a Reply