Economics Quotes

Socialism failed because it couldn't tell the economic truth; capitalism may fail because it couldn't tell the ecological truth.

Acts of sacrifice and decency without regard to what's in it for you create ripple effects. Ones that lift up families and communities, that spread opportunity and boost our economy.

Economics is extremely useful as a form of employment for economists.

An economist is a man who states the obvious in terms of the incomprehensible.

Isn't it interesting that the same people who laugh at science fiction listen to weather forecasts and economists?

If all economists were laid end to end, they would not reach a conclusion.

In all recorded history there has not been one economist who has had to worry about where the next meal would come from.

There are 10^11 stars in the galaxy. That used to be a huge number. But it's only a hundred billion. It's less than the national deficit! We used to call them astronomical numbers. Now we should call them economical numbers.

An economist is a surgeon with an excellent scalpel and a rough-edged lancet, who operates beautifully on the dead and tortures the living.

There can be no real individual freedom in the presence of economic insecurity.

Too much capitalism does not mean too many capitalists, but too few capitalists.

If all the economists were laid end to end, they'd never reach a conclusion.

An economist is an expert who will know tomorrow why the things he predicted yesterday didn't happen today.

An economist is an expert who will know tomorrow why the things he predicted yesterday didn't happen today.

There can be no liberty unless there is economic liberty.

A national debt, if it is not excessive, will be to us a national blessing.

Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself.

Christmas is a time when kids tell Santa what they want and adults pay for it. Deficits are when adults tell the government what they want and their kids pay for it.

The statesman who would attempt to direct private people in what manner they ought to employ their capitals, would not only load himeslf with a most unnecessary attention, but assume an authority which could safetly be trusted to no council and 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.

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.

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.

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.

Our industries have expanded to such a point that they will burst their jackets if they cannot find a free outlet to the markets of the world. Our domestic markets no longer suffice. We need foreign markets.

The statesman who would attempt to direct private people in what manner they ought to employ their capitals, would not only load himeslf with a most unnecessary attention, but assume an authority which could safely be trusted to no council and 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.

Collecting more taxes than is absolutely necessary is legalized robbery.

Have we the courage and the will to face up to the immorality and discrimination of the progressive tax, and demand a return to traditional proportionate taxation?

I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on the objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.

Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.

We need true tax reform that will at least make a start toward restoring for our children the American Dream that wealth is denied to no one, that each individual has the right to fly as high as his strength and ability will take him.

One definition of an economist is somebody who sees something happen in practice and wonders if it will work in theory.

There are no such things as limits to growth, because there are no limits on the human capacity for intelligence, imagination and wonder.

We who live in free market societies believe that growth, prosperity and ultimately human fulfillment, are created from the bottom up, not the government down. Only when the human spirit is allowed to invent and create, only when individuals are given a personal stake in deciding economic policies and benefitting from their success -- only then can societies remain economically alive, dynamic, progressive, and free.

Trust the people. This is the one irrefutable lesson of the entire postwar period contradicting the notion that rigid government controls are essential to economic development.

We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.

The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money.

A democratic government is the only one in which those who vote for a tax can escape the obligation to pay it.