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Alfred Marshall Quotes

Economist

Alfred Marshall was a British economist born on July 26, 1842, and died on July 13, 1924. He is one of the most influential economists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is considered one of the founders of neoclassical economics.

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All Economics Common Humans May Money Political Term Use Want Wealth

Famous Alfred Marshall Quotes

“Producer's Surplus is a convenient name for the genus of which the rent of land is the leading species.”

Names Land Species Producers Convenient Surplus

Book:Collected Works

Source: Collected Works

“Again, most of the chief distinctions marked by economic terms are differences not of kind but of degree.”

Kind Term Differences Economic Degrees Chiefs Distinction

Book:Principles of Economics

Source: Principles of Economics

“In common use almost every word has many shades of meaning, and therefore needs to be interpreted by the context.”

Needs Use Common Shade

Book:Principles of Economics: An Introductory Volume

Source: Principles of Economics: An Introductory Volume

“It is common to distinguish necessaries, comforts, and luxuries; the first class including all things required to meet wants which must be satisfied, while the latter consist of things that meet wants of a less urgent character.”

Want Firsts Character Common Class Comfort All Things Including Satisfied Luxury Latter Urgent First Class

Book:Principles of Economics

Source: Principles of Economics

“Material goods consist of useful material things, and of all rights to hold, or use, or derive benefits from material things, or to receive them at a future time.”

Use Rights Materials Benefits Goods Material Things Future Time

Book:Principles of Economics

Source: Principles of Economics

“Individual and national rights to wealth rest on the basis of civil and international law, or at least of custom that has the force of law.”

Law Individual Force Wealth Rights Bases International Customs International Law

Book:Principles of Economics

Source: Principles of Economics

“Every short statement about economics is misleading (with the possible exception of my present one).”

Education Economics Statements Exception Mislead

Author:Alfred Marshall

“The love for money is only one among many.”

Money

Author:Alfred Marshall

“The commercial storm leaves its path strewn with ruin. When it is over there is calm, but a dull, heavy calm.”

Path Calm Heavy Storm Ruins Dull

Book:The Economics of Industry

Source: The Economics of Industry

“Political Economy or Economics is a study of mankind in the ordinary business of life.”

Political Economy Study Mankind Ordinary Economics Political Economy

Author:Alfred Marshall

“Though a simple book can be written on selected topics, the central doctrines of economics are not simple and cannot be made so.”

Made Book Simple Written Economics Doctrine Topics Selected

Book:The Early Economic Writings of Alfred Marshall, 1867–1890

Source: The Early Economic Writings of Alfred Marshall, 1867–1890

“The most reckless and treacherous of all theorists is he who professes to let facts and figures speak for themselves.”

Facts Speak Figures Reckless Treacherous Theorists

Book:Selected Works of Alfred Marshall for a Memorial Collection for Professor Ralph L. Dewey, 1901-1959: Memorials of Alfred Marshall

Source: Selected Works of Alfred Marshall for a Memorial Collection for Professor Ralph L. Dewey, 1901-1959: Memorials of Alfred Marshall

“Nature's action is complex: and nothing is gained in the long run by pretending that it is simple, and trying to describe it in a series of elementary propositions.”

Trying Long Running Action Simple Series Complexes Pretending Long Runs Propositions

Book:Principles of Economics: Unabridged Eighth Edition

Source: Principles of Economics: Unabridged Eighth Edition

“The price of every thing rises and falls from time to time and place to place; and with every such change the purchasing power of money changes so far as that thing goes.”

Fall Finance Purchasing Rise And Fall Purchasing Power

Book:Principles of Economics: Unabridged Eighth Edition

Source: Principles of Economics: Unabridged Eighth Edition

“Civilized countries generally adopt gold or silver or both as money.”

Country Money Gold Silver Civilized Saving Money

Book:Principles of Economics: Unabridged Eighth Edition

Source: Principles of Economics: Unabridged Eighth Edition

“I admit that these terms and the diagrams connected with them repel some readers, and fill others with the vain imagination that they have mastered difficult economics problems, when really they have done little more than learn the language in which parts of those problems can be expressed, and the machinery by which they can be handled. When the actual conditions of particular problems have not been studied, such knowledge is little better than a derrick for sinking oil-wells erected where there are no oil-bearing strata.”

Wells Littles Done Problem Language Difficult Term Imagination Conditions Particular Reader Economics Connected Oil Vain Machinery Sinking Diagrams

Author:Alfred Marshall

“We might as well reasonably dispute whether it is the upper or the under blade of a pair of scissors that cuts a piece of paper, as whether value is governed by demand or supply.”

Wells Might Values Pieces Cutting Demand Paper Economics Pairs Disputes Blades Scissors

Book:Principles of Economics: Unabridged Eighth Edition

Source: Principles of Economics: Unabridged Eighth Edition

“Capital is that part of wealth which is devoted to obtaining further wealth.”

Philosophy Political Wealth Economics Finance Devoted Obtaining

Book:The Economics of Industry

Source: The Economics of Industry

“The hope that poverty and ignorance may gradually be extinguished derives indeed much support from the steady progress of the working classes during the 19th century.”

May Philosophy Political Class Poverty Support Progress Century Ignorance Economics Steady Working Class 19th Century Steady Progress

Book:Principles of Economics: An Introductory Volume

Source: Principles of Economics: An Introductory Volume

“The most valuable of all capital is that invested in human beings”

People Humans Human Beings Money Economics Investment Investing Valuable

Book:Principles of Economics: Unabridged Eighth Edition

Source: Principles of Economics: Unabridged Eighth Edition

“All labour is directed towards producing some effect.”

Effects Labour

Book:Principles of Economics

Source: Principles of Economics

“All wealth consists of desirable things; that is, things which satisfy human wants directly or indirectly: but not all desirable things are reckoned as wealth.”

Want Humans Wealth Desirable

Book:Principles of Economics: Unabridged Eighth Edition

Source: Principles of Economics: Unabridged Eighth Edition

“And very often the influence exerted on a person's character by the amount of his income is hardly less, if it is less, than that exerted by the way in which it is earned.”

Ifs Way Persons Character Influence Amount Income

Book:Elements of Economics of Industry: Being the First Volume of Elements of Economics

Source: Elements of Economics of Industry: Being the First Volume of Elements of Economics

“But if inventions have increased man's power over nature very much, then the real value of money is better measured for some purposes in labour than in commodities.”

Ifs Men Real Purpose Values Invention Labour Commodity Real Value Value Of Money

Book:Principles of Economics

Source: Principles of Economics

“Consumption may be regarded as negative production.”

May Negative Productions Consumption

Book:Principles of Economics

Source: Principles of Economics

“In the absence of any short term in common use to represent all desirable things, or things that satisfy human wants, we may use the term Goods for that purpose.”

Want Humans May Use Purpose Term Common Absence Goods Desirable Short Term

Book:Principles of Economics: Unabridged Eighth Edition

Source: Principles of Economics: Unabridged Eighth Edition

“Knowledge is our most powerful engine of production.”

Powerful Productions Most Powerful Engines

Book:Principles of Economics: Unabridged Eighth Edition

Source: Principles of Economics: Unabridged Eighth Edition

“Slavery was regarded by Aristotle as an ordinance of nature, and so probably was it by the slaves themselves in olden time.”

Slavery Slave Ordinances Olden Times

Book:Principles of Economics

Source: Principles of Economics

“In every age poets and social reformers have tried to stimulate the people of their own time to a nobler life by enchanting stories of the virtues of the heroes of old.”

People Stories Age Social Virtue Poet Hero Firefighter Reformers Enchanting

Book:Elements of Economics of Industry: Being the First Volume of Elements of Economics

Source: Elements of Economics of Industry: Being the First Volume of Elements of Economics

About the Author

Born: July 26, 1842
Died: July 13, 1924
Known for: Economist
Quotes: 29

Books & Sources

Principles of EconomicsRelated source material

Principles of Economics: Unabridged Eighth EditionRelated source material

Elements of Economics of Industry: Being the First Volume of Elements of EconomicsRelated source material

Principles of Economics: An Introductory VolumeRelated source material

The Economics of IndustryRelated source material

Collected WorksRelated source material

Selected Works of Alfred Marshall for a Memorial Collection for Professor Ralph L. Dewey, 1901-1959: Memorials of Alfred MarshallRelated source material

The Early Economic Writings of Alfred Marshall, 1867–1890Related source material

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