Ariell Reshef

University of Virginia, Department of Economics

Favorite Quotes

· “The purpose of studying economics is not to acquire a set of ready-made answers to economic questions, but to learn how to avoid being deceived by economists.” – Joan Robinson

· “Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone.” – John Maynard Keynes

· “Once we allow ourselves to be disobedient to the test of an accountant’s profit, we have begun to change our civilization.” – John Maynard Keynes

· “The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed the world is ruled by little else. Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist. . . . I am sure the power of vested interests is vastly exaggerated compared with the gradual encroachment of ideas. . . . Soon or late it is ideas, not vested interests, which are dangerous for good or evil.” – John Maynard Keynes

· “When the facts change, I change my mind – what do you do, sir?” – John Maynard Keynes

· “To feel much for others and little for ourselves, to restrain our selfishness and exercise our benevolent affections, constitute the perfection of human nature.” – Adam Smith

· “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his job depends on not understanding it.” – Upton Sinclair

· “All political thinking for years past has been vitiated in the same way. People can foresee the future only when it coincides with their own wishes, and the most grossly obvious facts can be ignored when they are unwelcome.” – George Orwell

· “Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing happened.” – Winston Churchill

· “We must first note that economic factors are taken into account in a world in which ignorance, prejudice, and mental confusion, encouraged rather than dispelled by the political organization, exert a strong influence on policy making.” – Ronald Coase

· “Economics, over the years, has become more and more abstract and divorced from events in the real world. Economists, by and large, do not study the workings of the actual economic system. They theorize about it. As Ely Devons, an English economist, once said in a meeting: ‘If economists wanted to study the horse, they wouldn’t go around and look at horses. They’d sit in their studies and say to themselves, `What would I do if I were a horse?’ ’ ” [italics mine] – Ronald Coase

· “Results? Why, man, I have gotten a lot of results. I know several thousand things that won't work.” – Thomas Alva Edison

· “If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?” – Albert Einstein

· “The first derivative is the last refuge of a scoundrel.” – Charles Kindleberger

· “The discipline of colleges and universities is in general contrived, not for the benefit of the students, but for the interest, or more properly speaking, for the ease of the masters. Its object is, in all cases, to maintain the authority of the master, and whether he neglects or performs his duty, to oblige the students in all cases to behave toward him as if he performed it with the greatest diligence and ability.” – Adam Smith

· “Economics is extremely useful as a form of employment for economists.” – John Galbraith

· “It is not the consciousness of men that determines their being, but, on the contrary, their social being that determines their consciousness.” – Karl Marx

· “He who controls the present, controls the past. He who controls the past, controls the future.” – George Orwell

· “All history is contemporary history.” – Benedetto Croce

· “People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.” – George Orwell

· “All that is needed for evil to succeed is that decent human beings do nothing.” – Edmund Burke

· “It’s all right to tell a man to lift himself by his own bootstraps, but it is a cruel jest to say to a bootless man that he ought to lift himself by his own bootstraps.” – Martin Luther King Jr.

· “Logic can convince but only emotion can motivate.” – Jonathan Alter

· “Your manuscript is both good and original. But the part that is good is not original, and the part that is original is not good.” – Attributed to Samuel Johnson

· “If you give ‘em enough ketchup, they’ll even eat concrete.” – Howard Goldberg

· “After bread, education is the second need of the people.” – Danton

· “Dans le cochon, tout est bon.” – French proverb

· “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” – George Orwell

· “Four wheels good – two wheels better.” – Anonymous

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