Economist Quotes

• A friend of mine was asked to a costume ball a short time ago. He slapped some egg on his face and went as a liberal economist.

  Ronald Reagan

  Eggs, Political, Balls

  Ronald Reagan (2004). “Speaking My Mind: Selected Speeches”, p.424, Simon and Schuster

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• The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable.

  John Kenneth Galbraith

  Astrology, Looks, Economic

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

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• An economist is an expert who will know tomorrow why the things he predicted yesterday didn't happen today.

  Laurence J. Peter

  Funny, Business, Future

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• The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Men, Design, Liberty

  "The Fatal Conceit: The Errors of Socialism". Book by Friedrich Hayek. Chapter 5: "The Fatal Conceit", 1988.

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• There is only one difference between a bad economist and a good one: the bad economist confines himself to the visible effect; the good economist takes into account both the effect that can be seen and those effects that must be foreseen.

  Frederic Bastiat

  Differences, Accounts, Effects

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• Teach a parrot the terms 'supply and demand' and you've got an economist.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Demand, Parrots, Teach

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• The first lesson of economics is scarcity: there is never enough of anything to fully satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics.

  Thomas Sowell

  Scarcity, Lessons, Politics

  Thomas Sowell (1993). “Is Reality Optional?: And Other Essays”, Hoover Inst Press

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• I am not an economist. I am an honest man!

  Mark Twain

  Honesty, Humorous, Men

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• It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.

  Adam Smith

  Business, Invisible Hand, Government

  An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations vol. 1, bk. 1, ch. 2 (1776)

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• When the facts change, I change my mind.

  John Maynard Keynes

  Business, Mind, Facts

  "The Keynes Centenary". "The Economist" (Vol. 287, p. 19), 1983.

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• Economics is extremely useful as a form of employment for economists.

  John Kenneth Galbraith

  Government, Home Economics, Employment

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

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• An economist is a man who knows a hundred ways of making love but doesn't know any women.

  Art Buchwald

  Money, Men, Making Love

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• I'm not an economist, and I'm not a proponent of shock therapy.

  Diane Kochilas

  Shock Therapy, Shock, Therapy

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• There are 10^11 stars in the galaxy. That used to be a huge number. But it's only a hundred billion. It's less than the national deficit! We used to call them astronomical numbers. Now we should call them economical numbers.

  Richard P. Feynman

  Stars, Learning, Science

  "Richard P. Feynman, Teacher". David L. Goodstein, "Physics Today", Volume 42, No. 2, February 1989.

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• The purpose of studying economics is not to acquire a set of ready-made answers to economic questions, but to learn how to avoid being deceived by economists.

  Joan Robinson

  Learning, Answers, Deceit

  "Marx, Marshall and Keynes" (1955)

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• If economists could manage to get themselves thought of as humble, competent people on a level with dentists, that would be splendid.

  John Maynard Keynes

  Humble, People, Would Be

  John Maynard Keynes (1952). “Essays in Persuasion”

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• Although economists have studied the sensitivity of import and export volumes to changes in the exchange rate, there is still much uncertainty about just how much the dollar must change to bring about any given reduction in our trade deficit.

  Martin Feldstein

  Dollars, Reduction, Given

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• What the war did was give me the opportunity of three years of continuous reading, and it was in the course of reading that I became convinced that I should become an economist.

  Douglass North

  War, Book, Reading

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• With respect to the first of these obstacles, it has often been made a matter of grave complaint against Political Economists, that they confine their attention to Wealth, and disregard all consideration of Happiness or Virtue.

  Nassau William Senior

  Happiness, Political, Attention

  Nassau William Senior (1836). “An Outline of the Science of Political Economy”, p.130

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• I don't imagine Heads of Government would ever be able to say I'm not an economist therefore I can't take decisions on matters of the economy; I'm not a soldier I can't take decisions on matters of defence; I'm not an educationist so I can't take decisions about education.

  Thabo Mbeki

  Government, Decision, Soldier

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• Unlimited economic growth has the marvelous quality of stilling discontent while maintaining privilege, a fact that has not gone unnoticed among liberal economists.

  Noam Chomsky

  Growth, Quality, Gone

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• Practical men who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist. Madmen in authority, who hear voices in the air, are distilling their frenzy from some academic scribbler of a few years back

  John Maynard Keynes

  Believe, Men, Air

  The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money bk. 6, ch. 24 (1936)

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• I am favor of cutting taxes under any circumstances and for any excuse, for any reason, whenever it's possible.

  Milton Friedman

  Cutting, Liberty, Taxation

  "Conservatives Betrayed: How George W. Bush and Other Big Government Republicans Hijacked the Conservative Cause". Book by Richard A. Viguerie, 2006.

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• I would never make a good economist. You know, an economist is a man that can tell you anything about — well, he will tell you what can happen under any given condition — and his guess is liable to be as good as anybody else's, too.

  Will Rogers

  Business, Inspiration, Economics

  "The Will Rogers Scrapbook".

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• For economist the real world is often a special case.

  Edgar Fiedler

  Real, Special, World

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