“People dont realize that we cannot forecast the future. What we can do is have probabilities of what causes what, but thats as far as we go. And Ive had a very successful career as a forecaster, starting in 1948 forward.”

The probability of ten consecutive heads is 0.1 percent; thus, when you have millions of coin tossers, or investors, in the end there will be thousands of very successful practitioners of coin tossing, or stock picking.

Gold stands in the way of this insidious process. It stands as a protector of property rights.

I have long argued that paying down the national debt is beneficial for the economy.

Productivity is notoriously difficult to predict.

The economy is turning, and credit comes in with a lag, .. To the extent that a number of small firms are finding it difficult to get the credit they need at a price they can afford, that’s likely to change for the better.

Without calling the overall national issue a bubble, it’s pretty clear that it’s an unsustainable underlying pattern.

If we allow terrorism to undermine our freedom of action, we could reverse at least part of the palpable gains achieved by postwar globalization. It is incumbent upon us not to allow that to happen.

Crony capitalism is essentially a condition in which… public officials are giving favours to people in the private sector in payment of political favours.

There is no evidence that the business cycle has been repealed.

While local economies may experience significant price imbalances, a national severe price distortion seems most unlikely in the United States, given its size and diversity.

The true measure of a career is to be able to be content, even proud, that you succeeded through your own endeavors without leaving a trail of casualties in your wake.

I love to play tennis and golf, listen to music, watch baseball and root for the Redskins.

It is regrettably the way human nature functions, whether we like it or not. What successful economies do is keep it to a minimum.

The arts develop skills and habits of mind that are important for workers in the new economy of ideas.

Institutions of the newer participants in global finance had not been tested, until recently…recent crisis have underscored certain financial structure vulnerabilities that are not readily assuaged in the short run.

Even though some down payments are borrowed, it would take a large, and historically most unusual, fall in home prices to wipe out a significant part of home equity.

An untempted woman cannot boast of her chastity.

You cannot control your own population by force, but it can be distracted by consumption.

The Infinite cannot be measured. The plan of Nature is so immense, but she has no plan, no scheme, but to go on and on forever. What is size, what is time, distance, to the Infinite?

The mind cannot long play the heart’s role.

Weakness of character is the only defect which cannot be amended.

I cannot conceive of a politically feasible solution to this problem which will overdo cutting the deficit, where overdoing means harming the economy. It might be technically possible, but it is not realistic.

Justice is such a fine thing that we cannot pay too dearly for it.

Nowadays, anyone who cannot speak English and is incapable of using the Internet is regarded as backward.