Quotes and anectdotes from the wise to the foolish, and the courageous to the drunk

John Maynard Keynes Economist

  • Gender: Male
  • Citizenship: United Kingdom
  • Born: Jun 5, 1883
  • Died: Apr 21, 1946

John Maynard Keynes, 1st Baron Keynes, CB, FBA, was a British economist whose ideas have fundamentally affected the theory and practice of modern macroeconomics and informed the economic policies of governments. He built on and greatly refined earlier work on the causes of business cycles, and he is widely considered to be one of the founders of modern macroeconomics and the most influential economist of the 20th century. His ideas are the basis for the school of thought known as Keynesian economics and its various offshoots.

In the 1930s, Keynes spearheaded a revolution in economic thinking, overturning the older ideas of neoclassical economics that held that free markets would, in the short to medium term, automatically provide full employment, as long as workers were flexible in their wage demands. Keynes instead argued that aggregate demand determined the overall level of economic activity and that inadequate aggregate demand could lead to prolonged periods of high unemployment. According to Keynesian economics, state intervention was necessary to moderate "boom and bust" cycles of economic activity.

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

Most men love money and security more, and creation and construction less, as they get older. money

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

The social object of skilled investment should be to defeat the dark forces of time and ignorance which envelope our future. future

By a continuing process of inflation, government can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens. government

Ideas shape the course of history. history & inspirational

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

I work for a Government I despise for ends I think criminal. government

The importance of money flows from it being a link between the present and the future. future & money

Education: the inculcation of the incomprehensible into the indifferent by the incompetent. education