Quotessence
Home / Authors / John Maynard Keynes
John Maynard Keynes

John Maynard Keynes Quotes

Economist

Filter quotes by topic

AllEconomicsInvestingIfsEconomicMenLongInvestmentWealthMindShould

Famous John Maynard Keynes Quotes

“Lenin is said to have declared that the best way to destroy the Capitalistic System was to debauch the currency. . . Lenin was certainly right. There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner which not one man in a million can diagnose.”

MenWayMeanDoeSaidLawForceProcessSidesLibertyMillionsEconomicEconomicsDestructionBasesBest WayOne ManCurrencyInflationEconomic FreedomBanking SystemMonetary SystemCentral Banking
Book:The Economic Consequences of the Peace: The Economist
Create image

“[T]he theory of output as a whole, which is what the following book purports to provide, is much more easily adapted to the conditions of a totalitarian state, than is the theory of production and distribution of a given output produced under the conditions of free competition and a large measure of laissez-faire.”

BookStatesWholeGivenLibertyEconomicConditionsTheoryCompetitionProductionsFollowingDistributionAdaptedOutputLaissez FaireTotalitarian StateLaissez Faire Capitalism
Author:John Maynard Keynes
Create image

“Unlike physics, for example, such parts of the bare bones of economic theory as are expressible in mathematical form are extremely easy compared with the economic interpretation of the complex and incompletely known facts of experience, and lead one a very little way towards establishing useful results.”

WayLittlesFactsFormEasyResultsKnownEconomicExampleTheoryEconomicsComplexesBonesPhysicsMathematicalInterpretationEconomic Theory
Book:The Collected Writings of John Maynard Keynes: Essays in biography
Create image

“Too large a proportion of recent "mathematical" economics are mere concoctions, as imprecise as the initial assumptions they rest on, which allow the author to lose sight of the complexities and interdependencies of the real world in a maze of pretentious and unhelpful symbols.”

WorldRealLosesEconomicsSightMereInvestingSymbolsMathematicalComplexityAssumptionProportionReal WorldInitialsPretentiousMazes
Book:General Theory Of Employment , Interest And Money
Create image

“The book, as it stands, seems to me to be one of the most frightful muddles I have ever read, with scarcely a sound proposition in it beginning with page 45 [Hayek provided historical background up to page 45; after that came his theoretical model], and yet it remains a book of some interest, which is likely to leave its mark on the mind of the reader. It is an extraordinary example of how, starting with a mistake, a remorseless logician can end up in bedlam.”

MindBookEndsSeemsSoundInterestMistakeExampleReaderPagesModelsEconomicsMarkRemainsHistoricalExtraordinaryStartingBackgroundsPropositionsTheoreticalHayekMuddleRemorseless
Book:The Collected Writings of John Maynard Keynes: The general theory and after: pt. 1, Preparation
Create image

“Most, probably, of our decisions to do something positive, the full consequences of which will be drawn out over many days to come, can only be taken as the result of animal spirits-a spontaneous urge to action rather than inaction, and not as the outcome of a weighted average of quantitative benefits multiplied by quantitative probabilities.”

ActionSpiritDecisionAnimalResultsTakenBenefitsConsequenceEconomicsAverageOutcomesUrgesSpontaneousProbabilityInactionDays To ComeAnimal Spirits
Author:John Maynard Keynes
Create image

“The love of money as a possession-as distinguished from the love of money as a means to the enjoyments and realities of life-will be recognized for what it is, a somewhat disgusting morbidity, one of those semi-criminal, semi-pathological propensities which one hands over with a shudder to the specialists in mental disease”

LifeMeanHandsRealityEconomyDiseasePossessionCriminalsReality Of LifeEnjoymentDisgustingDistinguishedSpecialistsPropensityLove Of MoneyMorbidity
Author:John Maynard Keynes
Create image

“I expect to see the State, which is in a position to calculate the marginal efficiency of capital-goods on long views and on the basis of the general social advantage, taking an ever greater responsibility for directly organizing investments.”

LongStatesPhilosophyPoliticalSocialViewsResponsibilityGreaterPositionAdvantageEconomicsBasesInvestmentGoodsEfficiency
Book:Keynes and Public Policy After Fifty Years: Theories and method
Create image

“Nevertheless, if we contemplate a society with a somewhat stable wage-unit, with national characteristics which determine the propensity to consume and the preference for liquidity, and with a monetary system which rigidly links the quantity of money to the stock of the precious metals, it will be essential for the maintenance of prosperity that the authorities should pay close attention to the state of the balance of trade. For a favourable balance, provided it is not too large, will prove extremely stimulating; whilst an unfavourable balance may soon produce a state of persistent depression.”

IfsShouldMayStatesPayAttentionProduceBalanceProveEssentialsAuthorityTradeDetermineProsperityCharacteristicsLinksMetalsQuantityStableContemplatingNeverthelessUnitsPreferencePersistentMaintenanceMonetaryPropensityImbalanceMonetary SystemLiquidityPrecious Metal
Book:General Theory Of Employment , Interest And Money
Create image

“It has been pointed out already that no knowledge of probabilities, less in degree than certainty, helps us to know what conclusions are true, and that there is no direct relation between the truth of a proposition and its probability. Probability begins and ends with probability.”

KnowsHas BeensEndsHelpingTruthDegreesDirectRelationMathematicsMathConclusionCertaintyMathematicalStatisticsProbabilityPropositions
Book:A Treatise on Probability
Create image

“Lenin is said to have declared that the best way to destroy the Capitalist System was to debauch the currency. By a continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens. By this method they not only confiscate, but they confiscate arbitrarily; and, while the process impoverishes many, it actually enriches some. The sight of this arbitrary rearrangement of riches strikes not only at security, but at confidence in the equity of the existing distribution of wealth.”

WaySaidImportantGovernmentPoliticsProcessWealthEconomicSecurityCitizensSightMethodRichesStrikesBest WayCapitalistCurrencyContinuingDistributionEquityInflationArbitraryDistribution Of Wealth
Book:Essays in persuasion
Create image

“The spectacle of modern investment markets has sometimes moved me towards the conclusion that to make the purchase of an investment permanent and indissoluble, like marriage, except by reason of death or other grave cause, might be a useful remedy for our contemporary evils. For this would force the investor to direct his mind to the long-term prospects and to those only.”

MindLongSometimesReasonMightEvilForceCausesTermModernDirectMovedInvestmentGravesContemporaryConclusionPermanentLong TermInvestorsRemedyProspects
Book:General Theory Of Employment , Interest And Money
Create image