“In the classic old business cycle, there would be a diminution in sales; it would take a little while for this information to reach corporate headquarters.”

Life is not a multiple choice test, it’s an open-book essay exam.

And there would be an inventory pileup. And then – bam – businesses would react, sometimes violently, by cutting production.

His stellar record suggests that the only right answer to the age-old question of whether it is better to be lucky or good may be: both.

Murphys law of economic policy’: Economists have the least influence on policy where they know the most and are most agreed.

If you try to give an on-the-one-hand-or-the-other- hand answer, only one of the hands tends to get quoted.

Public opinion is presumptively an input to policy formation in a democracy because politicians respond to it or at least are believed to respond [to it].

The last duty of a central banker is to tell the public the truth.

They have the most influence on policy where they know the least and disagree most vehemently.

And the maestro surely wielded the chairman’s baton with extraordinary skill.

There is a kind of a cascading chain, … If one can’t sell, then that business doesn’t buy and that means the next business doesn’t sell, and the previous business doesn’t sell, and so on.

There are no classes in life for beginners; right away you are always asked to deal with what is most difficult.

I had thought for years, probably 30 or 40 years, that it would be a lot of fun to try my hand at a classic English mystery novel.

Definition of a classic: a book everyone is assumed to have read and often thinks they have.

You know about the fantasies related to the classics, but there is no real discussion about today’s life and no discussion of the real conditions – which is really sickening.

They’re classic themes, which is why I think it’s such a great story to look at again.

I like the classic Mexican style.

I still think the best classic meal in New York is a coffee-shop breakfast – you sort of can’t skip it.

I think it’s pretty classic if you look at the way entertainment reflects the country’s status.