Unlike modern man, who dreams of the world he will make, pre-modern man dreamed of the world he left.

If an economy in the doldrums could drift indefinitely, the price of government inaction might be graver by far than the consequences of bold unorthodoxy.

In the end the question is: Who is to be master, man or his machines? As long as the control over technology rests primarily on economic calculation, the victor is not likely to be man.

Mathematics has given economics rigor, but alas, also mortis.

The cure for capitalism's failing would require that a government would have to rise above the interests of one class alone.

It is from the scope and wisdom of the economists of the past that we must reap the knowledge with which to face the future.

Veblen once asked a religious student the value of her church in kegs of beer.

We may make progress only by freeing ourselves from the rut of the past, but without this rut an orderly society would hardly be possible in the first place.

To one American family out of four, the idea of capitalism as a benign system of comfort , dignity , and personal advance is only a myth , or worse, a bitter mockery.

If one could divine the nature of the economic forces in the world, one could foretell the future.

Less than seventy-five years after it officially began, the contest between capitalism and socialism is over: capitalism has won.

Only stagnant people get stuck because they don't attempt to move at all.

Emotional states change like the wind, and to indulge them only gives them more power over a person.

Worrying was painful .... but compared to the alternative, a privilege

When our fingers touch a crackle of electricity passes between us.

One good thing about being young is that you're not experienced enough to know what can't be done.

Business 2.0 was hugely profitable last year, and will be profitable this year.

I think the world of politics is pretty sleazy.

To learn which questions are unanswerable, and not to answer them: this skill is most needful in times of stress and darkness.

I wasn't really the most charming person, socially - it took me a long time to develop my people skills - but the one place I was always comfortable was onstage, acting or singing.