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John Maynard Keynes

John Maynard Keynes Quotes

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Famous John Maynard Keynes Quotes

“A valuation, which is established as the outcome of the mass psychology of a large number of ignorant individuals is liable to change violently as the result of a sudden fluctuation of opinion due to factors which really do not make much difference . . . since there will be no strong roots of conviction to hold it steady.”

PsychologyInvestingBubblesFoolishnessSpeculationBandwagon
Book:The General Theory Of Employment
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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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“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.”

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Author:John Maynard Keynes
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“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
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