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John Maynard Keynes

John Maynard Keynes Quotes

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Famous John Maynard Keynes Quotes

“I see, therefore, the rentier aspect of capitalism as a transitional phase which will disappear when it has done its work. And with the disappearance of its rentier aspect much else in it besides will suffer a sea-change. It will be, moreover, a great advantage of the order of events which I am advocating, that the euthanasia of the rentier, of the functionless investor, will be nothing sudden, merely a gradual but prolonged continuance of what we have seen recently in Great Britain, and will need no revolution.”

NeedsDoneWisdomSufferingOrderPoliticsEconomySeaEventsRevolutionCapitalismAdvantageAspectDisappearLiberalismBritainInvestorsPhasesAdvocatingGreat BritainDisappearanceEuthanasiaContinuanceSea Change
Book:General Theory Of Employment , Interest And Money
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“It is not the ownership of the instruments of production which it is important for the State to assume. If the State is able to determine the aggregate amount of resources devoted to augmenting the instruments and the basic rate of reward to those who own them, it will have accomplished all that is necessary. Moreover, the necessary measures of socialization can be introduced gradually and without a break in the general traditions of society.”

IfsImportantStatesWisdomAblePoliticsBreakEconomyAmountResourcesTraditionInstrumentsAssumingRewardsRateDetermineProductionsLiberalismAccomplishedDevotedOwnershipSocialization
Book:General Theory Of Employment , Interest And Money
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“Ideas, knowledge, art, hospitality, travel - these are things which should in their nature be international. But let goods be homespun whenever it is reasonably and conveniently possible and above all let finance be primarily national.”

ShouldArtIdeasBusinessLetting GoClimateInternationalFinanceGoodsHospitality
Book:Activities 1931-1939: world crises and policies in Britain and America
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“...By combining a popular hatred of the class of entrepreneurs with the blow already given to social security by the violent and arbitrary disturbance of contract,... governments are fast rendering impossible a continuance of the social and economic order of the nineteenth century.”

GovernmentOrderGivenSocialClassImpossibleEconomicCenturySecurityHatredEntrepreneurInvestingBlowViolentContractsSocial SecurityArbitraryNineteenth CenturyDisturbanceCombiningRenderingContinuanceEconomic Order
Book:The Economic Consequences of the Peace: The classic text on the Treaty of Versailles and post war Europe
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“A sound banker, alas, is not one who foresees danger and avoids it, but one who, when he is ruined, is ruined in a conventional and orthodox way along with his fellows, so that no one can really blame him. It is necessarily part of the business of a banker to maintain appearances, and to confess a conventional respectability, which is more than human. Life-long practices of this kind make them the most romantic and the least realistic of men.”

MenWayHumansKindLongSoundPracticeDangerFellowsBlameInvestingAppearanceHuman LifeOrthodoxRealisticConventionalRuinedAlasLong LifeBankersRespectabilityMost Romantic
Author:John Maynard Keynes
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“In truth, the gold standard is already a barbarous relic. All of us, from the Governor of the Bank of England downwards, are now primarily interested in preserving the stability of business, prices, and employment, and are not likely, when the choice is forced on us, deliberately to sacrifice these to outworn dogma, which had its value once, of 3 pounds, 17 shill ings, 10 1/2 pence per ounce. Advocates of the ancient standard do not observe how remote it now is from the spirit and the requirements of the age. A regulated nonmetallic standard has slipped in unnoticed. It exists.”

AgeSpiritValuesChoicesSacrificeStandardsGoldEnglandInvestingAncientEmploymentPoundsStabilityDogmaGovernorsRequirementsUnnoticedRelicsGold StandardShills
Book:The Collected Writings of John Maynard Keynes: Essays in persuasion
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“I do not mean to impugn the social justice and social expediency of the redistribution of incomes aimed at by N.I.R.A. and by the various schemes for agricultural restriction. The latter, in particular, I should strongly support in principle. But too much emphasis on the remedial value of a higher price-level as an object in itself may lead to serious misapprehension as to the part which prices can play in the technique of recovery. The stimulation of output by increasing aggregate purchasing power is the right way to get prices up; and not the other way round.”

WayShouldMayMeanPlayValuesSocialJusticeLevelsPrinciplesSupportToo MuchObjectsParticularSeriousHigherSocial JusticeRoundsInvestingVariousTechniqueIncomeRecoveryLatterSchemesRight WayEmphasisRestrictionOutputStimulationPurchasingExpediencyPurchasing Power
Author:John Maynard Keynes
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“It is impossible that the intention of the entrepreneur who has borrowed in order to increase investment can become effective (except in substitution for investment by other entrepreneurs which would have occurred otherwise) at a faster rate than the public decide to increase their savings”

PhilosophyPoliticalOrderImpossibleIncreaseEntrepreneurIntentionInvestmentRateSavingFasterClassicSavingsPolitical PhilosophyBorrowedSubstitution
Book:General Theory Of Employment , Interest And Money
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“In a regime of Free Trade and free economic intercourse it would be of little consequence that iron lay on one side of a political frontier, and labour, coal, and blast furnaces on the other. But as it is, men have devised ways to impoverish themselves and one another; and prefer collective animosities to individual happiness.”

MenWayLittlesWould BePoliticalIndividualSidesEconomicConsequenceLaborTradeLaysCollectivesIronRegimesCoalEconomistFrontiersIntercourseBlastFree TradeAnimosityFurnacesIndividual Happiness
Book:The collected writings of John Maynard Keynes
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“To suppose that safety-first consists in having a small gamble in a large number of different companies where I have no information to reach a good judgment, as compared with a substantial stake in a company where one's information is adequate, strikes me as a travesty of investment policy.”

FirstsDifferentNumbersCompanyInformationPolicyJudgmentSafetyInvestmentInvestingStrikesStakesAdequateGambleLarge NumbersDiversificationGood JudgmentTravestySafety First
Author:John Maynard Keynes
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“It is the long term investor who will in practice come in for the most criticism. For it is the essence of his behaviour that he should be eccentric, unconventional and rash in the eyes of the average opinion. If he is successful, that will only confirm the general belief in his rashness; and if in the short run he is unsuccessful, which is very likely, he will not receive much mercy. Worldly wisdom teaches that it is better for reputation to fail conventionally than to succeed unconventionally.”

IfsThinkingShouldLongEyeRunningBeliefTermOpinionTeachPracticeSuccessfulFailingSucceedCriticismMercyEssenceIndependentInvestingAverageReputationLong TermInvestorsBehaviourWorldlyEccentricUnsuccessfulUnconventionalIndependent ThinkingRashnessWorldly Wisdom
Author:John Maynard Keynes
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“Nothing can preserve the integrity of contact between individuals, except a discretionary authority in the state to revise what has become intolerable. The powers of uninterrupted usury are too great. If the accretions of vested interests were to grow without mitigation for many generations, half the population would be no better than slaves to the other half.”

IfsStatesWould BeIndividualGrowsInterestHalfGenerationsIntegrityAuthoritySlavePopulationContactPreservesOther HalfVested InterestsUsury
Book:The collected writings of John Maynard Keynes
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“Businessmen have a different set of delusions from politicians; and need, therefore, different handling. They are, however, much milder than politicians, at the same time allured and terrified by the glare of publicity....You could do anything you like with them, if you would treat them (even the big ones) not as wolves and tigers, but as domestic animals by nature, even though they have been badly brought up and not trained as you would wish.”

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Author:John Maynard Keynes
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“The master-economist must possess a rare combination of gifts. He must reach a high standard in several different directions and must combine talents not often found together. He must be mathematician, historian, statesman, philosopher - in some degree. He must understand symbols and speak in words. He must contemplate the particular in terms of the general, and touch abstract and concrete in the same flight of thought. He must study the present in the light ofthe past for the purposes of the future”

DifferentLightTogetherPastPurposeFoundSpeakTermStudyTalentParticularMastersDegreesStandardsPhilosopherFlightSymbolsCombinationAbstractHistorianConcreteContemplatingMathematicianEconomistStatesmenDifferent DirectionsHigh Standards
Book:The Collected Writings of John Maynard Keynes: Essays in biography
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“Of the maxims of orthodox finance none, surely, is more anti-social than the fetish of liquidity, the doctrine of that it is a positive virtue on the part of investment institutions to concentrate their resources upon the holding of 'liquid' securities. It forgets that there is no such thing as liquidity of investment for the community as a whole.”

WholeSocialCommunityForgetVirtueSecurityResourcesInstitutionsInvestmentDoctrineFinanceOrthodoxMaximsLiquidFetishAnti SocialLiquidity
Book:General Theory Of Employment , Interest And Money
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