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Economics Quotes

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Economics Quotes

“Violent resistance against the power of the state is the last resort of the minority in its effort to break loose from the oppression of the majority. ... The citizen must not be so narrowly circumscribed in his activities that, if he thinks differently from those in power, his only choice is either to perish or to destroy the machinery of state.”

Source: The free and prosperous commonwealth: an exposition of the ideas of classical liberalism

“PLEASURE and pain are undoubtedly the ultimate objects of the calculus of economics. To satisfy our wants to the utmost with the least effort - to procure the greatest amount of what is desirable at the expense of the least that is undesirable - in other words, to maximize pleasure, is the problem of economics.”

Want Problem Pain Pleasure Effort Objects Amount Economics Ultimate Expenses Desirable Calculus Pain And Pleasure Undesirable

Book:The Theory of Political Economy

Source: The Theory of Political Economy

“As to the latter point - that by having a child in America you are somehow starving a child in Bangladesh - remember that agricultural economics is not a zero-sum game. Farmers want to make a living, so as demand increases, so does production. Not only that, but agricultural productivity has increased so rapidly that in some countries the government pays farmers not to plant crops in an effort to keep food prices from dropping.”

“Some people think the Federal Reserve Banks are US government institutions. They are not... they are private credit monopolies which prey upon the people of the US for the benefit of themselves and their foreign and domestic swindlers, and rich and predatory money lenders. The sack of the United States by the Fed is the greatest crime in history. Every effort has been made by the Fed to conceal its powers, but the truth is the Fed has usurped the government. It controls everything here and it controls all our foreign relations. It makes and breaks governments at will.”

“Marshall Jevons is the pioneer for integrating economics and detective fiction, and The Mystery of the Invisible Hand is another fine effort in this genre.”

Hands Effort Fiction Mystery Fine Economics Invisible Genre Detectives Pioneers Integrating Invisible Hand Detective Fiction

Author:Tyler Cowen

“Obama liberals, in their incalculable arrogance, believe they are smart enough to defy everything we know about human nature, economics and history by insisting on separating financial efforts from rewards and pretending this can bring prosperity.”

Knows Believe Humans Enough Effort Human Nature Smart Economics Rewards Financial Prosperity Arrogance Pretending Separating Insisting

Author:David Limbaugh

“The only freedom which deserves the name is that of pursuing our own good, in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it.”

Way Long Motivational Names Freedom Effort Liberty Ethics Deserve Economics Libertarian Freedom Of Choice True Freedom Limiting Government Limiting Freedom

Book:The Classical Utilitarians: Bentham and Mill

Source: The Classical Utilitarians: Bentham and Mill

“Quality is never an accident. It is always the result of intelligent effort.”

“It is a popular delusion that the government wastes vast amounts of money through inefficiency and sloth. Enormous effort and elaborate planning are required to waste this much money.”

Government Effort Liberty Economic Amount Waste Economics Libertarian Planning Enormous Delusion Libertarianism Sloth Government Spending Inefficiency Government Waste

Book:Parliament of Whores: A Lone Humorist Attempts to Explain the Entire U.S. Government

Source: Parliament of Whores: A Lone Humorist Attempts to Explain the Entire U.S. Government

“A society that robs an individual of the product of his effort ... is not strictly speaking a society, but a mob held together by institutionalized gang violence.”

Together Individual Effort Liberty Violence Economic Products Economics Libertarian Libertarianism Gang Individual Liberty Gang Violence

Author:Ayn Rand

“Some years ago John Kenneth Galbraith wrote in an essay on his efforts at writing a history of economics: 'As one approaches the present, one is filled with a sense of hopelessness; in a year and possibly even a month, there is now more economic comment in the supposedly serious literature than survives from the whole of the thousand years commonly denominated as the Middle Ages ... anyone who claims to be familiar with it all is a confessing liar.' I believe that all physicists would subscribe to the same sentiments regarding their own professional literature. I do at any rate.”

“Wealth comes from successful individual efforts to please one's fellow man ... that's what competition is all about: "outpleasing" your competitors to win over the consumers.”

Men Winning Individual Wealth Effort Liberty Successful Please Economics Fellows Competition Libertarian Consumers Libertarianism Competitors Fellow Man Individual Effort Successful Individuals

Author:Walter E. Williams

“There is no such thing as society, there is a living tapestry of men and women and the beauty of that tapestry, and the quality of our lives, will depend upon how much each of us is prepared to take responsibility for ourselves and to turn round and help, by our own efforts, those who are unfortunate. There's no such thing as entitlement unless someone has first met an obligation”

“Opportunism is self interest seeking with guile often involving subtle forms of deceit, especially calculated efforts to mislead, distort, disguise, obfuscate, or otherwise confuse. This vastly complicates the problems of economic organisation. Plainly if it were not for opportunism all behaviour could be rule governed”

Ifs Self Problem Form Interest Effort Economic Economics Seeking Subtle Deceit Behaviour Disguise Self Interest Mislead Involving Organisation Guile Opportunism

Author:Oliver E. Williamson

“Home economics should find its way into the curriculum of every school because the scientific study of a problem pertaining to food, shelter or clothing... raises manual labor that might be drudgery to the plane of intelligent effort that is always self-respecting...Home economics is not one department, in the sense in which dairying or entomology or soils is a department. It is not a single speciality... Many technical and educational departments will grow out of it as time goes on.”

“The best state for human nature is that in which, while no one is poor, no one desires to be richer, nor has any reason to fear from thrust back, by the efforts of others to push themselves forward.”

Humans States Reason Desire Poor Effort Human Nature Economics Thrust

Book:Principles of Political Economy: With Some of Their Applications to Social Philosophy

Source: Principles of Political Economy: With Some of Their Applications to Social Philosophy

“What's the single most important thing to learn from an economics course today? What I tried to leave my students with is the view that the invisible hand is more powerful than the hidden hand. Things will happen in well-organized efforts without direction, controls, plans. That's the consensus among economists. That's the Hayek legacy.”

Wells Important Hands Happens Today Courses Views Powerful Effort Plans Students Economics Important Things Invisible Legacy Organized Economist Consensus Hayek Invisible Hand

Author:Lawrence Summers