“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 accomplished.”

For at least another hundred years we must pretend to ourselves and to every one that fair is foul and foul is fair; for foul is useful and fair is not. Avarice and usury and precaution must be our gods for a little longer still.

The right remedy for the trade cycle is not to be found in abolishing booms and thus keeping us permanently in a semi-slump; but in abolishing slumps and thus keeping us permanently in a quasi-boom.

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.

When the final result is expected to be a compromise, it is often prudent to start from an extreme position.

Nor should the argument seem strange that taxation may be so high as to defeat its object, and that, given sufficient time to gather the fruits, a reduction of taxation will run a better chance than an increase of balancing the budget.

There is nothing so disastrous as a rational investment policy in an irrational world.

Conservatism leads nowhere; it satisfies no ideal.

A study of the history of opinion is a necessary preliminary to the emancipation of the mind.

When my information changes, I alter my conclusions. What do you do, sir?

If we consistently act on the optimistic hypothesis, this hypothesis will tend to be realised; whilst by acting on the pessimistic hypothesis we can keep ourselves for ever in the pit of want.

Economists must leave to Adam Smith alone the glory of the Quarto, must pluck the day, fling pamphlets into the wind, write always sub specie temporis , and achieve immortality by accident, if at all.

The introduction of a substantial Government transfer tax on all transactions might prove the most serviceable reform available,with a view to mitigating the predominance of speculation in the United States.

When I find new information I change my mind; What do you do?

The power to become habituated to his surroundings is a marked characteristic of mankind.

Never in history was there a method devised of such efficacy for setting each country’s advantage at variance with its neighbours’ as the international gold (or, formerly, silver) standard.

Once we allow ourselves to be disobedient to the test of an accountant’s profit, we have begun to change our civilization.

Obstinacy can bring only a penalty and no reward.

Vanity dies hard; in some obstinate cases it outlives the man.