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If you owe your bank manager a thousand pounds, you are at his mercy. If you owe him a million pounds, he is at your mercy.

John Maynard Keynes

Everything is always decided for reasons other than the real merits of the case.
JOHN MAYNARD KEYNES

Case Decision Reality Reason
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

Error Excessive Ideas National Power
Canada is a place of infinite promise. We like the people, and if one ever had to emigrate, this would be the destination, not the U.S.A. The hills, lakes and forests make it a place of peace and repose of the mind, such as one never finds in the U.S.A.
JOHN MAYNARD KEYNES

Destination Infinite Nature Peace Place Promise
It is investment, i.e. the increased production of material wealth in the shape of capital goods, which alone increases national wealth.
JOHN MAYNARD KEYNES

Capital Investment National Production Wealth
When my information changes, I alter my conclusions. What do you do, sir?
JOHN MAYNARD KEYNES

Change Conclusion Information Yourself
The numeric system was invented to help man to put order in the chaos of the world.
JOHN MAYNARD KEYNES

Chaos Help Invention Man System World
The friends of gold will have to be extremely wise and moderate if they are to avoid a revolution.
JOHN MAYNARD KEYNES

Avoid Friendship Gold Revolution Wisdom
Whenever you save five shillings you put a man out of work for a day.
JOHN MAYNARD KEYNES

Day Save Work Yourself
The central principle of investment is to go contrary to the general opinion, on the grounds that if everyone agreed about its merits, the investment is inevitably too dear and therefore unattractive.
JOHN MAYNARD KEYNES

Attractive General Ground Investment Opinion Principle
A sound banker, alas, is not one who foresees danger and avoids it, but one who, when he is ruined, is ruined in a conventional way along with his fellows, so that no one can really blame him.
JOHN MAYNARD KEYNES

Avoid Bank Blame Dangerous Himself Ruin Sound
Dangerous acts can be done safely in a community which thinks and feels rightly, which would be the way to hell if they were executed by those who think and feel wrongly.
JOHN MAYNARD KEYNES

Act Dangerous Feeling Hell Thinking Wrong
Ideas shape the course of history.
JOHN MAYNARD KEYNES

Course History Ideas Shape
The duty of “saving” became nine-tenths of virtue and the growth of the cake the object of true religion.
JOHN MAYNARD KEYNES

Growth Object Religion Save True Virtue
When the final result is expected to be a compromise, it is often prudent to start from an extreme position.
JOHN MAYNARD KEYNES

Compromise Expectation Final Position Result
If economists could manage to get themselves thought of as humble, competent people on a level with dentists, that would be splendid.
JOHN MAYNARD KEYNES

Economy Humble Level Management Splendid
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

Finding Hands Invisible Myself Solution Trying

If you owe your bank manager a thousand pounds, you are at his mercy. If you owe him a million pounds, he is at your mercy.

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If you owe your bank manager a thousand pounds, you are at his mercy. If you owe him a million pounds, he is at your mercy.

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