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Quotes about economics

133 quotes from 78 people

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We are the first nation to starve to death in a storehouse that’s overfilled with everything we want.
Will Rogers1879–1935Daily Telegram #1355 (26 November 1930)
- America
Competition has been shown to be useful up to a certain point and no further, but cooperation, which is the thing we must strive for today, begins where competition leaves off.
Franklin D. Roosevelt1882–1945Speech at the People’s Forum in Troy, New York (March 3, 1912)
- Business
The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.
Franklin D. Roosevelt1882–1945Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Second Inaugural Address (1937)
- Money
I dislike Communism because it is undemocratic, and capitalism because it favors exploitation.
Bertrand Russell1872–1970Unarmed Victory (1963), p. 14
- Politics
Advocates of capitalism are very apt to appeal to the sacred principles of liberty, which are embodied in one maxim: The fortunate must not be restrained in the exercise of tyranny over the unfortunate.
Bertrand Russell1872–1970Sceptical Essays (1928), Ch. 13: Freedom in Society
- Liberty
It is doubly chimerical to build peace on economic foundations which, in turn, rest on the systematic cultivation of greed and envy, the very forces which drive men into conflict.
ESE. F. Schumacher1911–1977Small is Beautiful: A Study of Economics As If People Mattered (1973), p. 36.
- War & Peace
If all the economists were laid end to end, they’d never reach a conclusion.
George Bernard Shaw1856–1950
There is no wilderness where I can hide from these things, there is no haven where I can escape them; though I travel to the ends of the earth, I find the same accursed system⁠—I find that all the fair and noble impulses of humanity, the dreams of poets and the agonies of martyrs, are shackled and bound in the service of organized and predatory Greed!
Upton Sinclair1878–1968The Jungle (1906), Chapter XXVIIIIn context
- Money
The working-man was to fix his hopes upon a future life, while his pockets were picked in this one; he was brought up to frugality, humility, obedience⁠—in short to all the pseudo-virtues of capitalism.
Upton Sinclair1878–1968The Jungle (1906), Chapter XXXIIn context
- Religion
It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own self-interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own neccessities but of their advantages.
Adam Smith1723–1790The Wealth of Nations (1776), Book I, Chapter II, p. 19.In context
The statesman who should attempt to direct people in what manner they ought to employ their capitals, would not only load himself with a most unnecessary attention, but assume an authority which could safely be trusted, not only to no single person, but to no council or senate whatever, and which would nowhere be so dangerous as in the hands of a man who had folly and presumption enough to fancy himself fit to exercise it.
Adam Smith1723–1790The Wealth of Nations (1776), Book IV, Chapter IIIn context
- Government
Consumption is the sole end and purpose of all production; and the interest of the producer ought to be attended to, only so far as it may be necessary for promoting that of the consumer.
Adam Smith1723–1790The Wealth of Nations (1776), Book IV, Chapter VIII, p. 719.In context
The uniform, constant and uninterrupted effort of every man to better his condition, the principle from which public and national, as well as private opulence is originally derived, is frequently powerful enough to maintain the natural progress of things toward improvement, in spite both of the extravagance of government, and of the greatest errors of administration. Like the unknown principle of animal life, it frequently restores health and vigour to the constitution, in spite, not only of the disease, but of the absurd prescriptions of the doctor.
Adam Smith1723–1790The Wealth of NationsIn context
Civil government, so far as it is instituted for the security of property, is in reality instituted for the defence of the rich against the poor, or of those who have some property against those who have none at all.
Adam Smith1723–1790The Wealth of Nations (1776), Book V, Chapter I, Part II, 775.In context
- Government
In the long-run the workman may be as necessary to his master as his master is to him, but the necessity is not so immediate.
Adam Smith1723–1790The Wealth of Nations (1776), Book I, Chapter VIII, p. 80.In context
- Work