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Quotes about economics

133 quotes from 78 people

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So long as the system of competition in the production and exchange of the means of life goes on, the degradation of the arts will go on.
William Morris1834–1896“Art Under Plutocracy” (1883)
- Art
The unjust distribution of goods persists, creating a situation of social sin that cries out to Heaven and limits the possibilities of a fuller life for so many of our brothers.
Pope Francis1936–2025Said during a gathering of Latin American bishops, as quoted in ‘Option for the Poor’ alive and well in Latin America, National Catholic Reporter (21 May 2007)
- Justice
The first lesson of economics is scarcity: there is never enough of anything to fully satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics.
Thomas Sowellborn 1930Is Reality Optional? (1993), Student Loans
- Politics
To cherish and stimulate the activity of the human mind, by multiplying the objects of enterprise, is not among the least considerable of the expedients, by which the wealth of a nation may be promoted.
Alexander Hamilton1757–1804Report on Manufactures (1791)
The struggle between the opponents and defenders of capitalism is a struggle between innovators who do not know what innovation to make and conservatives who do not know what to conserve.
Simone Weil1909–1943The Power of Words (1937), p. 233
- Politics
Market signals were clear: There’s no profit in preventing a future catastrophe.
Noam Chomskyborn 1928Chomsky: Ventilator Shortage Exposes the Cruelty of Neoliberal Capitalism, April 1, 2020
- Business
If machines produce everything we need, the outcome will depend on how things are distributed.
Stephen Hawking1942–2018“Science AMA Series: Stephen Hawking AMA Answers!”, reddit.com (8 October 2015)
- Technology
Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist.
John Maynard Keynes1883–1946The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money (1936), Ch. 24, p. 383
- Ideas
Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another; but let him labor diligently and build one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from violence when built.
Abraham Lincoln1809–1865Reply to the New York Workingmen’s Democratic Republican Association (21 March 1864); Collected Works, Vol. 7, pp. 259-260
- Work
The mode of production of material life determines the social, political and intellectual life process in general.
Karl Marx1818–1883Preface to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy (1859).
- Philosophy
I have never known much good done by those who affected to trade for the public good.
Adam Smith1723–1790The Wealth of Nations (1776), Book IV, Chapter IIIn context
- Business
Money and credit are as much human contrivances as bicycles, and as liable to expansion and modification as any other sort of prevalent but imperfect machine.
H. G. Wells1866–1946Anticipations of the Reaction of Mechanical and Scientific Progress Upon Human Life and Thought (1901), The Faith, Morals, and Public Policy of The New Republic, pp. 340–343
- Money
The first panacea for a mismanaged nation is inflation of the currency; the second is war. Both bring a temporary prosperity; both bring a permanent ruin. But both are the refuge of political and economic opportunists.
Ernest Hemingway1899–1961Notes on the Next War (1935)
- Politics
- War & Peace
Economics are the method; the object is to change the heart and soul.
Margaret Thatcher1925–2013Interview for The Sunday Times (1 May 1981)
- Politics
Chicago is the product of modern capitalism, and, like all other great commercial centers, is unfit for human habitation.
Eugene V. Debs1855–1926What’s the matter with Chicago? (1902)
- Clever Jabs