There is only one social science and we are its practitioners

...it is distressing how often one can guess the answer given to an economic question merely by knowing who asks it.

I attended schools in Seattle through the University of Washington, from which I was graduated in 1931. I spent the next year at Northwestern University.

The main insight learned from interdisciplinary studies is the return to specialization

Competition is a tough weed, not a delicate flower.

If you never miss a plane, you’re spending too much time at the airport.

My teaching began in 1936 at Iowa State College where T. W. Schultz was the department chairman.

I recall my mother asking in about 1946 what I was and I replied proudly that I was a professor. A decade later she repeated her question and I repeated my answer. "No promotion?" was her comment.

Theories are not rejected by cirsumstantial evidence: it takes a theory to beat a theory.

It was in the 1960s that I began the detailed study of public regulation.

All great economists are tall. There are two exceptions: John Kenneth Galbraith and Milton Friedman.

We can hardly get to the very far for the very far we can think of is the far we have not yet reach

I am a soul in the world: in the world of my soul the whirled light from the day the sacked land of my father.

How do you solve a mystery? How do you write a book? The techniques for starting both are surprisingly similar. Find an intriguing question and, pen and dagger tucked under cloak, search for clues.

Trouthe is the hyest thyng that man may kepe.

I try to eat how your mother wanted you to eat when you were young.

I think if people have more of an understanding of what I'm doing, then they'll appreciate it and get into it more.

I prefer playing in the studio because you have much more control over things.

I'm always on the lookout for projects with a strong moral and inspirational core.

Trust me on this: no one is better off alone.

The idea that academics should remain ''above the fray'' only gives ideologues license to misuse our work.