John Maynard Keynes Quotes
To suggest social action for the public good to the city London is like discussing The Origin of Species to a Bishop sixty years ago.
Morally and philosophically I find myself in agreement with virtually the whole of it: and not only in agreement with it, but in deeply moved agreement.
I know of only three people who really understand money. A professor at another university. One of my students. And a rather junior clerk at the Bank of England.
If we consistently act on the optimistic hypothesis, this hypothesis will tend to be realised; whilst by acting on the pessimistic hypothesis we can keep ourselves for ever in the pit of want.
It would be foolish, in forming our expectations, to attach great weight to matters which are very uncertain.
The principle objectives in life are love, the creation and enjoyment if aesthetic experience, the pursuit of knowledge. Love comes a long way first.
Thus, the weight of my criticism is directed against the inadequacy of the theoretical foundations of the laissez-faire doctrine upon which I was brought up and for many years I taught
All the political parties alike have their origins in past ideas and not in new ideas and none more conspicuously so than the Marxists .
How long will it be necessary to pay City men so entirely out of proportion to what other servants of society commonly receive for performing social services not less useful or difficult?
Gold is a relic from a time when government's were less trustworthy in these matters (currency debasement) than they are now.
The love of money as a possession...will be recognised for what it is, a somewhat disgusting morbidity.
The friends of gold will have to be extremely wise and moderate if they are to avoid a revolution.
Dangerous acts can be done safely in a community which thinks and feels rightly, which would be the way to hell if they were executed by those who think and feel wrongly.
I believe that the future will learn more from the spirit of Gesell than from that of Marx .
Adam Smith and Malthus and Ricardo ! There is something about these three figures to evoke more than ordinary sentiments from us their children in the spirit.
Once we allow ourselves to be disobedient to the test of an accountant's profit, we have begun to change our civilization.
The atomic hypothesis which had worked so splendidly in Physics breaks down in Psychics.
If human nature felt no temptation to take a chance there might not be much investment merely as a result of cold calculation.
The treasury could fill old bottles with banknotes and bury them..and leave it to private enterprises on well-tried principles of laissez-faire to dig the notes up again.
Government machinery has been described as a marvelous labor saving device which enables ten men to do the work of one.
The numeric system was invented to help man to put order in the chaos of the world.
The glory of the nation you love is a desirable end, — but generally to be obtained at your neighbor's expense.
Perhaps a day might come when there would be at last be enough to go round, and when posterity could enter into the enjoyment of our labors.
What an extraordinary episode in the economic progress of man that age was which came to an end in August, 1914!
But the dreams of designing diplomats do not always prosper, and we must trust the future .
The duty of "saving" became nine-tenths of virtue and the growth of the cake the object of true religion.
I conceive, therefore, that a somewhat comprehensive socialisation of investment will prove the means of securing an approximation to full employment.
I am myself impressed by the great social advantages of increasing the stock of capital until it ceases to be scarce.
For my own part, I believe that there is social and psychological justification for significant inequalities of incomes and wealth.
It is better that a man should tyrannize over his bank balance than over his fellow-citizens.
The old saying holds. Owe your banker �1000 and you are at his mercy; owe him �1 million and the position is reversed.
If we aim deliberately at the impoverishment of Central Europe, vengeance, I dare predict, will not limp.
In this autumn of 1919, in which I write, we are at the dead season of our fortunes.
The long run is a misleading guide to current affairs. In the long run we are all dead.
Our attitude to these criticisms must be determined by our whole moral and emotional reaction to the future of international relations and the Peace of the World.
The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping from old ones.
By this means the government may secretly and unobserved, confiscate the wealth of the people, and not one man in a million will detect the theft.
Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work together for the benefit of all.
The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping the old ones.