80+ Best John Maynard Keynes Quotes From The Famous British Economist
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John Maynard Keynes is known as the 'father of macroeconomics' in the academic world.
Keynes is indisputably one of the most prominent economists of all time, not just the 20th century. The Economic theories and ideas by the British economist John Maynard Keynes had brought in fundamental changes in the theory and practice of macroeconomics while influencing the governments' economic strategies as well.
John Maynard Keynes was born on 5 July 1883 in Cambridge, England, to a moderately prosperous family. He was an economist, journalist, and financier.
Just before World War I, he joined government employment in the Treasury to advocate relations with allies and help Britain conserve its scant supply of foreign currencies. When the government launched the free market economy, Keynes was critical of laissez-faire regarding the boom and bust cycles.
His brilliant performance is suspected to have brought him a public career. John Maynard Keynes has written several books, 'Indian Currency And Finance', 'The Economic Consequences Of The Peace', 'The Tract On Monetary Reform', 'The General Theory Of Employment, Interest, And Money'.
We have curated a diverse list of quotations about economics, politics. These quotes also include John Maynard Keynes's famous quotes, John Maynard Keynes best quotes, stock market quotes, quotes about capitalism, economics quotes, the great depression quotes.
If you like these John Maynard Keynes quotes, check out Kropotkin quotes and William Lloyd Garrison quotes.
John Maynard Keynes Famous Quotes
Keynes is known to be one of the most prominent economists even today. Here's a list of John Maynard Keynes quotes to influence you as well, including the famous line, "in the long run we're all dead".
1. "Most men love money and security more, and creation and construction less, as they get older."
-John Maynard Keynes.
2. "The long run is a misleading guide to current affairs. In the long run, we are all dead."
-John Maynard Keynes.
3. "It is better to be roughly right than precisely wrong."
-John Maynard Keynes.
4. "We shall be able to afford to dare to assess the money-motive at its true value."
-John Keynes.
5. It would not be foolish to contemplate the possibility of afar greater progress still."
-John Keynes.
6. "The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping from old ones."
-John Keynes.
7. "Words ought to be a little wild, for they are the assaults of thoughts on the unthinking."
-John Maynard Keynes.
8. "Once we allow ourselves to be disobedient to the test of an accountant's profit, we have begun to change our civilization."
-John Maynard Keynes.
9. "Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone."
-John Maynard Keynes.
10. "I do not know which makes a man more conservative - to know nothing but the present, or nothing but the past."
-John Keynes.
11. "In the great events of man's history, in the unwinding of the complex fates of nations Justice is not so simple."
-John Maynard Keynes.
John Maynard Keynes Quotes On Stock Market
Economist John Maynard Keynes was also one of the richest financiers. Now, here's a list of John Maynard Keynes quotes organised like the stock.
12. "Successful investing is anticipating the anticipations of others."
-John Maynard Keynes.
13. "The social object of skilled investment should be to defeat the dark forces of time and ignorance which envelope our future."
-John Maynard Keynes.
14. "The hope of a very favorable outcome, which may balance the risk in the mind of the borrower, is not available to solace the lender."
-John Maynard Keynes, 'The General Theory Of Employment, Interest, And Money'.
15. "Markets can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent."
-John Maynard Keynes.
16. "When the accumulation of wealth is no longer of high social importance, there will be great changes in the code of morals."
-John Maynard Keynes.
17. "Even if we need a religion, how can we find it in the turbid rubbish of the red bookshop?"
John Maynard Keynes.
18. "If we aim deliberately at the impoverishment of Central Europe, vengeance, I dare predict, will not limp."
-John Maynard Keynes.
19. "Avarice and usury and precaution must be our gods for a little longer still."
-John Maynard Keynes.
20. "The markets are moved by animal spirits, and not by reason."
-John Maynard Keynes.
21. "It would not be foolish to contemplate the possibility of a far greater progress still."
-John Maynard Keynes.
22. "In this autumn of 1919, in which I write, we are at the dead season of our fortunes."
-John Maynard Keynes.
23. "The businessman is only tolerable so long as his gains can be held to bear some relation to what, roughly and in some sense, his activities have contributed to society."
-John Maynard Keynes.
24. "By this method they not only confiscate, but they confiscate arbitrarily; and, while the process impoverishes many, it actually enriches some."
-John Maynard Keynes.
25. "People will do the rational thing, but only after exploring all other alternatives."
-John Maynard Keynes.
26. "With the breakdown of the money economy, the practice of international barter is becoming prevalent."
-John Maynard Keynes.
John Maynard Keynes Quotes On Economics
Keynes was most famous for his economic theories also called Keynesian Economics which was based on the cause of prolonged unemployment. here's a list of economist John Maynard Keynes quotes to help you understand the theories better.
27. "I find economics increasingly satisfactory, and I think I am rather good at it."
-John Keynes.
28. "The master-economist must possess a rare combination of gifts .... He must be mathematician, historian, statesman, philosopher—in some degree. He must understand symbols and speak in words."
-John Keynes.
29. "If economists could manage to get themselves thought of as humble....that would be splendid."
-John Keynes.
30. "The importance of money flows from it being a link between the present and the future."
-John Keynes.
31. "The book, as it stands... is an extraordinary example of how, starting with a mistake, a remorseless logician can end up in bedlam."
–John Keynes.
32. "The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong are more powerful than is commonly understood."
-John Keynes.
33. "There is a danger of expecting the results of the future to be predicted from the past."
-John Keynes.
34. "I cannot leave this subject as though its just treatment wholly depended either on our own pledges or economic facts."
-John Keynes.
35. "If the Treasury were to fill old bottles with banknotes it would be better than nothing."
-John Maynard Keynes, 'The General Theory Of Employment, Interest, and Money'.
36. "The ideas which are here expressed so laboriously are extremely simple and should be obvious."
-John Keynes.
Best Motivational John Maynard Keynes Quotes
Let these bunch of John Maynard Keynes quotes to motivate you.
37. "The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping from old ones."
-John Maynard Keynes.
38. "It is ideas, not vested interests, which are dangerous for good or evil."
-John Maynard Keynes.
39. "He must contemplate the particular, in terms of the general, and touch abstract and concrete in the same flight of thought."
-John Maynard Keynes.
40. "Practical men who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist. Madmen in authority, who hear voices in the air, are distilling their frenzy from some academic scribbler of a few years back."
-John Maynard Keynes.
41. "If human nature felt no temptation there might not be much investment merely as a result of cold calculation."
-John Maynard Keynes.
42. "When the final result is expected to be a compromise, it is often prudent to start from an extreme position."
-John Maynard Keynes, 'The Economic Consequences Of The peace'.
43. "Nothing mattered except states of mind, chiefly our own."
-John Maynard Keynes.
44. "When somebody persuades me I am wrong; I change my mind."
-John Maynard Keynes.
45. "I find myself more and more relying for a solution of our problems on the invisible hand which I tried to eject from economic thinking twenty years ago."
-John Maynard Keynes.
46. "The power to become habituated to his surroundings is a marked characteristic of mankind."
-John Maynard Keynes.
John Maynard Keynes Quotes On Education
Economist John Maynard Keynes graduated from Eton College and King's College in Cambridge like his father and later became a professor of economics.
47. "Ideas shape the course of history."
-John Maynard Keynes.
48. "Education: the inculcation of the incomprehensible into the indifferent by the incompetent."
-John Maynard Keynes.
49. "Worldly wisdom teaches that it is better for the reputation to fail conventionally than to succeed unconventionally."
-John Maynard Keynes, 'The General Theory Of Employment, Interest, and Money'.
50. "A study of the history of opinion is a necessary preliminary to the emancipation of the mind."
-John Maynard Keynes.
51. "He must study the present in the light of the past for the purposes of the future."
-John Maynard Keynes.
John Maynard Keynes Quotes On Economic Institutions
Keynes was a professor himself and firmly believed in educating the mass on the subject. These quotes also portray his views, critique, and theory on the Great Depression as he was the financial advisor for Britain following the occurence.
52. "Americans are apt to be unduly interested in discovering what average opinion believes average opinion to be."
-John Maynard Keynes.
53. "When my information changes, I alter my conclusions. What do you do, sir?"
-John Maynard Keynes.
54. "For at least another hundred years we must pretend to ourselves and to everyone that fair is foul and foul is fair; for foul is useful and fair is not."
-John Maynard Keynes.
55. "If farming were to be organized like the stock market, a farmer would sell his farm in the morning when it was raining, only to buy it back in the afternoon when the sun came out."
-John Maynard Keynes.
56." When the capital development of a country becomes a by-product of the activities of a casino, the job is likely to be ill done."
-John Maynard Keynes.
57. "It is not intelligent. It is not beautiful. It is not just. It is not virtuous. And it doesn't deliver the goods."
-John Maynard Keynes.
58. "Lenin is said to have declared that the best way to destroy the Capitalist System was to debauch the currency."
-John Maynard Keynes.
Political John Maynard Keynes Quotes
Economist John Maynard Keynes had gotten into a public career as a government employee, he was subjected to a lot of political chicaneries which ultimately led him to resign.
59." One blames politicians, not for inconsistency but for obstinacy. They are the interpreters, not the masters, of our fate. It is their job, in fact, to register the fact accomplish."
-John Maynard Keynes.
60." It is a mistake to think businessmen are more immoral than politicians."
-John Maynard Keynes.
61." 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."
-John Maynard. Keynes.
62." He must be purposeful and disinterested in a simultaneous mood... yet sometimes as near to earth as a politician."
-John Maynard Keynes.
63." The political problem of mankind is to combine three things: economic efficiency, social justice and individual liberty."
-John Maynard Keynes.
64." The disruptive powers of excessive national fecundity may have played a greater part in bursting the bonds of convention than either the power of ideas or the errors of autocracy."
-John Maynard Keynes.
65." The projects and politics of militarism and imperialism, of racial and cultural rivalries...which was nearly complete in practice."
-John Maynard Keynes.
66." Nations are not authorized to visit on the children of their enemies the misdoings of parents of rulers."
-John Maynard Keynes.
67." It is hard for an educated decent, intelligent son of Western Europe to find his ideals here... which has changed all his values."
-John Maynard Keynes.
68." The decadent international but individualistic capitalism in the hands of which we found ourselves after the war is not a success."
-John Maynard Keynes.
69." By a continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens. "
-John Maynard Keynes.
Funny John Maynard Keynes Quotes
Keynes was known to have a good sense of humor as well.
70. "All production is for the purpose of ultimately satisfying a consumer."
-John Maynard Keynes.
71. "I only wish I had drunk more champagne."
-John Maynard Keynes.
72. "He had one illusion — France; and one disillusion — mankind, including Frenchmen."
–John Maynard Keynes.
73. "The avoidance of taxes is the only intellectual pursuit that carries any reward."
-John Maynard Keynes.
74. "Like Odysseus, the President looked wiser when he was seated."
-John Maynard Keynes.
75. "Once doubt begins it spreads rapidly."
-John Maynard Keynes.
76. "There is no harm in being sometimes wrong - especially if one is promptly found out."
-John Maynard Keynes.
77. "If you owe your bank a hundred pounds, you have a problem. But if you owe a million, it has."
-John Maynard Keynes.
78. "In truth, the gold standard is already a barbarous relic."
–John Maynard Keynes.
79."He, indeed, who gave fewest pledges to Fortune, has yet suffered her heaviest visitations."
-John Maynard Keynes.
80. "Some preach it in the name of Justice."
-John Maynard Keynes.
81. "I work for a Government I despise for ends I think criminal."
-John Maynard Keynes.
82. "Men will not always die quietly."
-John Maynard Keynes.
Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly quotes for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for John Maynard Keynes quotes then why not take a look at John Ruskin quotes, or taking responsibility quotes.
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Bachelor of Arts specializing in English, Master of Arts specializing in English
Rajnandini RoychoudhuryBachelor of Arts specializing in English, Master of Arts specializing in English
With a Master of Arts in English, Rajnandini has pursued her passion for the arts and has become an experienced content writer. She has worked with companies such as Writer's Zone and has had her writing skills recognized by publications such as The Telegraph. Rajnandini is also trilingual and enjoys various hobbies such as music, movies, travel, philanthropy, writing her blog, and reading classic British literature.
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