Austerity Quotes

• There is no austerity equal to a balanced mind, and there is no happiness equal to contentment; there is no disease like covetousness, and no virtue like mercy.

  Chanakya

  Integrity, Mind, Contentment

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• The boom, not the slump, is the right time for austerity at the Treasury.

  John Maynard Keynes

  Slumps, Investing, Treasury

  John Maynard Keynes (1982). “Activities 1931-1939: world crises and policies in Britain and America”

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• So-called austerity, the stoic injunction, is the path towards universal destruction. It is the old, the fatal, competitive path. Pull in your belt is a slogan closely related to gird up your loins, or the guns-butter metaphor.

  Wyndham Lewis

  Gun, Path, Economics

  Wyndham Lewis (1989). “The Essential Wyndham Lewis: An Introduction to His Work”, Andre Deutsch Limited

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• Nobody ever rioted for austerity.

  George Monbiot

  George Monbiot (2007). “Heat: how to stop the planet from burning”, South End Pr

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• This is taking place inside Europe. This is taking place inside a once great nation. The nation that invented democracy. We are on the edge of total social breakdown. And frankly, as far as the euro is concerned and the austerity measures are concerned, the medicine is killing the patient.

  Nigel Farage

  Europe, Medicine, Democracy

  "On the edge of social breakdown". UK Independence Party Website, May 31, 2012.

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• Austerity need not be Europe's fate.

  Francois Hollande

  Fate, Europe, Needs

  "François Hollande's chemistry with Angela Merkel crucial for Europe" by Ian Traynor, www.theguardian.com. May 06, 2012.

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• We are not jumping on the austerity bandwagon. A healthy economy is by far the most important thing for Social Democrats.

  Helle Thorning-Schmidt

  Jumping, Healthy, Important

  "Biography/Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• Even in a time of fiscal austerity, education is more than just an expense.

  Arne Duncan

  Expenses

  "Teacher Pay Study Asks the Wrong Question, Ignores Facts, Insults Teachers" by Sec. Arne Duncan, www.huffingtonpost.com. November 9, 2011.

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• Democracies can't handle austerity measures very well.

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb

  Democracy, Wells, Handle

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• Sibelius justified the austerity of his old age by saying that while other composers were engaged in manufacturing cocktails, he offered the public pure cold water.

  Neville Cardus

  Water, Age, Cocktails

  Sir Neville Cardus (1966). “The Delights of Music: A Critic's Choice”, London : Gollancz

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• HUMORIST, n. A plague that would have softened down the hoar austerity of Pharaoh's heart and persuaded him to dismiss Israel with his best wishes, cat-quick.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Heart, Cat, Israel

  Ambrose Bierce (2001). “The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary”, p.114, University of Georgia Press

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• What you call austerity is what I might call efficiency.

  David Cameron

  Might, Efficiency

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• Love is by far the most important thing of all.

  Emmet Fox

  Love Is, Important, Business Leadership

  Emmet Fox (1940). “Power Through Constructive Thinking”

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• What are these so-called austerity measures? What do they really bring? Oh, they bring a lot more poverty. Oh, they bring a worse GDP. Oh, they bring more unemployment.

  Gerald Celente

  Gdp, Unemployment, Poverty

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• The danger is not only that these austerity measures are killing the European economies but also that they threaten the very legitimacy of European democracies - not just directly by threatening the livelihoods of so many people and pushing the economy into a downward spiral, but also indirectly by undermining the legitimacy of the political system through this backdoor rewriting of the social contract.

  Ha-Joon Chang

  People, Political, Democracy

  "The root of Europe's riots" by Ha-Joon Chang, www.theguardian.com. September 28, 2012.

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• [T]he next time you hear serious-sounding people explaining the need for fiscal austerity, try to parse their argument. Almost surely, you'll discover that what sounds like hardheaded realism actually rests on a foundation of fantasy, on the belief that invisible vigilantes will punish us if we're bad and the confidence fairy will reward us if we're good. And real-world policy - policy that will blight the lives of millions of working families - is being built on that foundation.

  Paul Krugman

  Real, People, Trying

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• Extreme concupiscence may be found under extreme austerity.

  Margaret of Valois

  Hypocrisy, May, Found

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• In Europe there's an dangerous growth of ultra xenophobia which is pretty threatening to any one who remembers the history of Europe... and an attack on the remnants of the welfare state. It's hard to interpret the austerity-in-the-midst-of-recession policy as anything other than attack on the social contract.

  Noam Chomsky

  Xenophobia, Europe, Growth

  "Noam Chomsky on America's Economic Suicide". Interview with Laura Flanders / GRITtv, www.alternet.org. May 4, 2012.

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• The TUC's new slogan 'a future that works' sets a profound challenge. Austerity and rapid deficit reduction is failing in its own terms, but even at its best it is short-sighted, muddle-through politics with no vision of a new economic model.

  Frances O'Grady

  Economic Models, Profound, Challenges

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• Past experience with fiscal austerity at home and overseas strongly suggests that it is best for the economy's long-run performance to restrain government spending rather than raise taxes.

  Mark Zandi

  Running, Home, Past

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• The debt austerity would not be problems if we had technological progress. If you doubled the debt in the U.S., and the size of the economy doubled because of technological progress and growth, the two would roughly cancel out and it would all be a totally manageable situation.

  Peter Thiel

  Two, Growth, Progress

  Interviewed with Victoria Brown, bigthink.com. November 15, 2010.

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• Deficits must be cut, yes, but the rush to austerity risks undermining the fragile global recovery.

  Alistair Darling

  Recovery, Cutting, Risk

  "The Tories got it totally wrong on the recession: now they're getting it wrong on the recovery" by Alistair Darling, www.theguardian.com. June 19, 2010.

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• The consumption of petroleum should be conserved. We need to adopt some austerity measures. The people should cooperate with us.

  Veerappa Moily

  People, Needs, Should

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• I love a gay and sociable wisdom, and shun harshness and austerity in behaviour, holding every surly countenance suspect.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Wisdom, Gay, Behaviour

  Michel de Montaigne (1958). “Complete Essays”, p.641, Stanford University Press

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• Americans have always been able to handle austerity and even adversity. Prosperity is what is doing us in.

  James Reston, Jr.

  Adversity, Able, Prosperity

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