John Maynard Keynes Quotes

The numeric system was invented to help man to put order in the chaos of the world.

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?