“The political problem of mankind is to combine three things: economic efficiency, social justice and individual liberty.”

What an extraordinary episode in the economic progress of man that age was which came to an end in August, 1914!

Nothing mattered except states of mind, chiefly our own.

I believe myself to be writing a book on economic theory which will largely revolutionize – not, I suppose, at once but in the course of the next ten years – the way the world thinks about economic problems.

The boom, not the slump, is the right time for austerity at the Treasury.

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.

To suggest social action for the public good to the city London is like discussing The Origin of Species to a Bishop sixty years ago.

Ideas shape the course of history.

As time goes on, I get more and more convinced that the right method of investment is to put fairly large sums into enterprises which one thinks one knows something about and in the management of which one thoroughly believes.

The avoidance of taxes is the only intellectual pursuit that still carries any reward.

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.

Obstinacy can bring only a penalty and no reward.

It is astonishing what foolish things one can temporarily believe if one thinks too long alone, particularly in economics.

It is a mistake to think that one limits one’s risk by spreading too much between enterprises about which one knows little and has no reason for special confidence.

The love of money as a possession. Will be recognised for what it is, a somewhat disgusting morbidity.

Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone.

The markets are moved by animal spirits, and not by reason.

We as central bankers need not be concerned if a collapsing financial asset bubble does not threaten to impair the real economy, its production, jobs and price stability.

The increased flexibility of our economy, which has fostered our extraordinary resilience to shocks.

Six million jobs in the US depend on trade with Mexico. Ten border states – six in Mexico and four in the United States – combined have the third or fourth largest economy in the world.

Landlords grow rich in their sleep without working, risking or economizing. The increase in the value of land, arising as it does from the efforts of an entire community, should belong to the community and not to the individual who might hold title.

Mexico now has the 13th largest economy in the world.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development predicts it will have a larger economy than Germany by 2042.

For the first time since the second World War, we are not the sole dominant economy in the world.

All those who abandon this hypothesis immediately resign themselves to the market economy, to parliamentary democracy-the form of state suited to capitalism-and to the inevitable and ‘natural’ character of the most monstrous inequalities.