The 80 best quotes by John Maynard Keynes

John Maynard Keynes was a famous British economist born during the year 1883 and whose theories had a great impact on the policies taken by many States during the 20th century.

His theories on capitalism, inflation and unemployment are widely studied today. Thanks to the works of this famous economist, we have a better vision of the international economy and how it develops over time. Unfortunately, Keynes died in 1946 of a heart attack, the pressure of his work taking its toll on his already fragile state of health.

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Great phrases of the economist John Maynard Keynes

Without a doubt, this is an economist that we should all know, because thanks to his works we will be able to understand the economy in a much more accurate way.

Do you want to know his best phrases and thoughts? Below you can discover the 80 best phrases of John Maynard Keynes, possibly the most influential economist of the 20th century.

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1. With a continuous process of inflation, governments can secretly and inadvertently confiscate a significant part of the wealth of their fellow citizens.

Governments always have full control of a country's economy. They can manipulate her deeply.

2. We are being afflicted with a new disease, of which some readers may not have heard the name, but which you will hear about on a large scale in the years to come, unemployment technological.

New technologies have the drawback of leaving many people unemployed, for this reason we must know how to continually recycle ourselves.

3. He had an illusion: France; and a disappointment: humanity, including the French, and their colleagues no less important.

Decisions made by a government will affect the entire population of that country.

4. Speculators are a consequence and not a cause of high prices.

Speculators will always go where they can make money, they are a direct consequence of any economic bubble.

5. The inevitable rarely happens, it is the unexpected that usually happens.

We are completely unaware of what may happen in the future, we must be prepared for anything that may happen.

6. Behind any action by a politician you can find something said by an intellectual fifteen years ago.

Politicians always draw their ideas from intellectuals whom they have previously read.

7. Every time the franc loses value, the finance minister is convinced that it is due to everything except economic causes. he attributes it to the mysterious and evil influences of speculation.

Irresponsible management will unequivocally have a profound impact on the economy of any country.

8. Long periods are a misleading guide to current affairs. In the long run we are all dead.

We must not trust that in the future everything will be better, we must act now to make sure of it.

9. The market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent.

Our economy as individuals is really fragile, we must be very careful with our long-term investments.

10. When circumstances change, I change my mind. What are you doing?

We must know how to adapt to the problems of the moment, being malleable will allow us to be more effective in solving our economic problems.

11. Nothing can be solved in isolation. Every use of our resources is at the expense of an alternative use.

The economy is something that affects us all, the resources of a country are limited and belong to all its citizens.

12. When the accumulation of wealth is not important to have a high social level, there will be a great change in moral codes.

Currently, money largely directs our lives, this is something that we must change in the future.

13. Avoiding taxes is the only intellectual effort that is rewarded.

Avoiding paying our taxes can lead to jail sentences, this is something that we should all avoid in our professional career.

14. There is no more subtle or surer means of upsetting the existing foundation of society than corrupting money.

Money can cause order or disorder in our society. In any capitalist economy, money is the most valuable asset that exists.

15. Education: the inculcation of the incomprehensible to the indifferent by the incompetent.

A bad education can be the direct cause of many headaches, for any state that suffers from it.

16. If I owe you a pound, I have a problem; but if I owe you a million, the problem is yours.

If we have a large debt, our guarantor runs a great risk; because if he did not recover it, he himself would absorb said debt.

17. But Marxist socialism must always remain a wonder for historians of opinion: how such an illogical and clumsy doctrine may have exercised so powerful an influence over the minds of men, and through them over the events of life. history.

As we can see in this quote, Maynard Keynes is a convinced capitalist and as such, he is totally against a possible socialist economy.

18. The role of bank credit is to finance the restoration of working capital once business has definitely recovered.

Credit has a fundamental role in the capitalist economy, thanks to it it is possible to launch this economy towards success.

19. I know what makes a more conservative man... Knowing nothing of the present or nothing of the past.

If we do not risk we will never win, in this way we must always show ourselves to be innovative in order to prosper within our society.

20. I think that by modifying capitalism, wisely, it can probably become more efficient to achieve the ends cheaper than all alternative systems to date, but this system is, in many ways, extremely criticizable.

With a few tweaks, capitalism could become a much more efficient economy. In the future, perhaps this idea will be carried out by a government with truly clear ideas.

21. The day is not far off when the economic problem will be in the back seat where it belongs, and the heart and head will be occupied or re occupied by our real problems, the problems of life and human relations, of creation, behavior and religion.

Society as a whole is much more complex than just its economy, we must worry about all the problems that concern it.

22. The governments of Europe try to direct popular outrage against the class known as “speculators”, which is an obvious consequence of their vicious procedures.

The government is always looking for scapegoats to blame for its failures.

23. Inflation is unfair; deflation, inconvenient.

Inflation hurts the taxpayer and deflation hurts the employer.

24. When the development of a country's capital becomes a by-product of the activities of a casino, it is likely that the job has been done poorly.

Possessing a strong and determined government is essential for the development of any great nation.

25. But when events are so complex, forecasts can never point one way, and mistakes can be made. the mistake of expecting too rapid and inevitable consequences of causes that perhaps are not all applicable to the problem.

Predicting where the economy will move is something that all economists try to do, achieving it in practice is quite complicated.

26. To say that with a certain organization, equipment and technique, real wages and the volume of production (and therefore employment) are related in only one way, in such a way that, in general terms, an increase in employment can only occur accompanied by a decrease in the wage rate real.

According to Keynes, lowering wages can lead to a rapid increase in employment. Do you agree with him?

27. The first thing that is needed is that bank credit is cheap and abundant. This is only possible if each central bank frees itself from the concern of feeling that it has adequate reserves of international money.

Credit is the main driver of a country's economy, if credit does not flow the economy will inevitably stagnate.

28. Most men love money and security more, and creating and building less as they get older.

When we get older we feel incapable of innovating or creating something new, age always takes its toll, both physically and emotionally.

29. The flow of money is a link between the present and the future.

Money is essential in order to obtain a bright future, we must know how to ensure a good amount of it.

30. Ideas shape the course of history.

The ideas that, as simple people we have, can develop a current that changes society over time.

31. At the same time as the organization of investment markets is improving, however, the risks of the prevalence of speculation are increasing. Speculators might not be harmful if they were like bubbles within a stable business stream; what is serious occurs when it is the company that becomes a bubble in the midst of speculative disorder.

Speculation can cause inflation, which is beneficial in the present but with serious consequences in the future.

32. In the long run we will all be dead.

Do not leave for tomorrow what you can do today, seize the moment!

33. Although workers often resist a reduction in their nominal wages, they do not usually quit when the prices of wage-earning goods rise.

When prices rise, they increase the cost of living and obviously this causes people to be impoverished.

34. There are no intrinsic reasons for the shortage of capital.

The lack of capital can be given for many different reasons, but it will never be for a single specific reason.

35. The theory of aggregate production, which is the key to the next book, can be much more easily adapted to state conditions. totalitarian than the theory of production and distribution of a given output given the conditions of free competition and a large degree of laissez-faire. This is one of the reasons that justifies the fact that I call my theory “The general theory”.

Keynes was undoubtedly a great connoisseur of international economics, the ideas of this economist are completely valid today.

36. In the future, for many years, old Adam will be so strong within us that everyone will need to do some work if he wants to be satisfied. We will do more for ourselves than is common for today's rich, who only rejoices when he has little chores, chores, and routines. But besides this, we'll try to butter the slice of bread, make whatever work still needs to be done as widely shared as possible. Three hour shifts or fifteen hour weeks can eliminate the problem for a long time. Because three hours a day is enough to satisfy the old Adam in us.

When we work, we all feel more satisfied with ourselves, that's where the famous saying comes from: “work dignifies people”.

37. The study of economics does not seem to require any specialized gift of an exceptionally high order. Is it not a very easy discipline compared to the higher branches of philosophy or pure science? An easy discipline from which very few excel. The paradox may be explained by the fact that the expert economist must possess a rare combination of gifts. He must be to some extent a mathematician, historian, statesman, philosopher. You must understand the symbols and speak in words. It must contemplate the particular from the perspective of the general and consider the abstract and the concrete in the same reasoning. You must study the present thinking about the future. No aspect of the nature of man or of his institutions should be left out of his consideration. It must be simultaneously determined and disinterested; as distant and incorruptible as an artist and yet sometimes as close to the ground as a politician.

Being an economist can be quite difficult, as we must be skilled in a large number of different sciences.

38. Ancient Egypt was doubly lucky and undoubtedly owed its fabulous wealth to having two activities, which were the construction of pyramids, as well as the search for precious metals, whose fruits, by not being able to serve the needs of man being consumed, did not ruin their abundance. The Middle Ages created cathedrals and sang funeral songs. Two pyramids, two masses for the dead, are twice as good as one, but two railways from London to York are not.

For the economy to flow effectively, it must never stop, creating jobs is the main pillar of the economy.

39. I don't understand how universal bankruptcy can bring us closer to prosperity.

Bankruptcies are never positive, for an economy to be successful there must always be new companies that support it.

40. If the Public Treasury filled bottles with banknotes and buried them... and left private companies... extracting the banknotes again... there would be no more unemployment... the real income of the community would increase and its wealth.

Injecting capital into a country's credit will give its economy the fuel it needs to take off.

41. In the first place, it is a class party, and of a class that is not mine. If I have to defend partial interests, I will defend mine. When the class struggle as such arrives, my local patriotism and my personal patriotism will be with my friends.

This great economist was always willing to represent the great elites of his country in society.

42. He should have had more champagne.

When Keynes was alive, the consumption of champagne was widespread among the bourgeois class.

43. It is better to be more or less right than to be wrong.

We must not fall into error, for this reason we must be very sure of our affirmations.

44. But beware! The time for all this has not yet come. For at least another hundred years we must pretend to ourselves and to everyone that fair is filthy and what is filthy; because lack is useful and fair is not. Greed, usury, and caution must be our gods for a little while longer.

Greed in the human being seems intrinsic to him, we must promote more positive values ​​in society.

45. For our generation, Einstein has become a double symbol: a symbol of the mind traveling on the cold regions of space, and a symbol of the brave and generous outcast, pure of heart and glad of spirit.

As we can see, even economists were deeply inspired by the figure of the great genius of science that was undoubtedly Einstein.

46. I have tried, giving a few touches, to highlight the solidarity and the historical continuity of the high Intelligence of England, which has built the foundations of our thought in the two and a half centuries since Locke, in his Essay Concerning Human Understanding, wrote the first modern book on English.

England has always been the birthplace of great intellectual personalities, and the education that the English have received has always been among the best in the world.

47. Newton was not the first of the age of reason. He was the last of the wizards.

Many know Newton's facet as a physicist, but few know him as the famous alchemist that he was also.

48. Comfort and habit allow us to be willing to give up, but I'm not ready for a creed that doesn't care how much destroys the freedom and security of everyday life, which deliberately uses the weapons of persecution, destruction and struggle international.

Religion in ancient times had managed to control the economy of more than one nation, thereby causing the time that we all know today as the Middle Ages.

49. In truth, the gold standard is already a barbaric relic.

Gold has always been what is economically considered a safe haven and today its prices continue to be through the roof.

50. I don't feel the most humble before the immensity of the skies.

John Maynard Keynes trusted his qualities as an economist and was completely at peace with himself.

51. This is a nightmare, which will pass with the morning. Because the resources of nature and the devices of men are as fertile and productive as they were. The speed of our progress towards solving the material problems of life is no less rapid.

Whatever ups and downs society may experience, we will manage to fix it over time.

52. If he is not the wisest, but the most sincere of men. If he is not the nicest, however, the strangest and sweetest. If he is not the most practical, however, of the purest public conscience. If he is not of great artistic genius, however, the most solid and sincere achievement in many of the fields that the human mind encompasses.

We all have something to offer to society, we must know what it is in order to exploit it in our favor.

53. How should they know the glory of free intellect and soft objective sympathy towards whom money and violence, drink and blood and pageantry mean absolutely nothing?

A large number of people in the world are driven solely by greed, we should not be one of those people. The world can be wonderful seen from the right prism.

54. The love of money as a possession, unlike the love of money as a means to the enjoyment and reality of life, will be recognized for what it is, a rather unpleasant morbidity, one of those semi-criminal, semi-pathological propensities that shudders before disease specialists mental.

Money is not the most important thing we can have, our family and our friends indeed are.

55. Leninism is a combination of two things that Europeans have kept for centuries in different compartments of the soul: religion and business.

The way in which Lenin viewed the economy caused a great furor in his time, and even today a good part of the political world supports those ideas.

56. Economists must leave Adam Smith only the glory of the room, they must start the day, throw pamphlets to the wind, to always write "sub specie temporis" and to achieve immortality by accident, if at all. do.

With this quote, this famous economist encouraged all his peers to improve and innovate. We must evolve over time.

57. The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. In fact, the world is ruled by little else. Practical men, who think themselves quite exempt from any intellectual influence, are often the slaves of some deceased economist.

Ideas, without a doubt, direct our world, without them nothing that we can all do today would be possible. We should always value new ideas.

58. Men will not always die in silence.

The time will come when the working class will say enough is enough. The bourgeois are fully aware of this.

59. There is no more subtle or surer way to overturn the existing foundations of society than to debate currency. The process involves all the occult forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and it does so in a way that no man in a million can diagnose.

The government is capable of manipulating the economy in such a way that the working class always loses.

60. The old saying stands. You owe your banker £1000 and you are at his mercy; we owe him £1 million and the position is reversed.

Banks must know very well to whom they lend money, large debts are the most difficult to collect.

61. Capitalism is the awesome belief that the wickedest men will do the wickedest things for the good of all.

Capitalism is capable of carrying out the most atrocious actions against its own population. We must know how to choose our heads of government very well.

62. Words should be a bit wild, because they are the assault of thoughts on those who don't think.

Our words must perfectly represent our own thoughts, knowing how to choose them correctly is not an easy task.

63. The political problem of humanity is to combine three things: economic efficiency, social justice and individual freedom.

Our political leaders have a great responsibility: the task of making our society a fairer one for all.

64. The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas, but in how to escape from the old ones.

When we focus our thoughts on old ideas, we will be limited by those very conceptions. To innovate we must start from scratch.

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

We must know very well what action we should take depending on what situation, making the right decisions in life is not an easy thing to do in practice.

66. If agriculture were organized like the stock market, a farmer would sell his farm in the morning when it was raining, only to buy it in the afternoon when the sun came up.

The stock market fluctuates really fast, being able to predict those fluctuations is practically impossible.

67. To see the British Prime Minister watching over the company, with six or seven senses unavailable to common men, judging character, motive, and the subconscious impulse, sensing what each one was thinking and even what he was going to say next, and combining with the telepathic instinct. The most appropriate argument or appeal for your auditor's vanity, weakness, or self-interest immediately, was to realize that the poor president would be playing the trick of the blind at that moment. game.

John Maynard Keynes lived through the two great wars, and during that time the English prime minister was none other than the famous Winston Churchill.

68. The forces of the 19th century have run their course and are exhausted.

By the turn of the century, the great economic powers of the past were exhausted.

69. That she [France] has anything to fear from Germany in the future that we can foresee, except what she herself may provoke, is an illusion. When Germany has regained her strength and pride, as she will in her due time, it must be many years before she looks west again. Germany's future now lies in the East, and it is in that direction that her hopes and ambitions, when revived, will certainly shift.

After the two great wars, Germany and France had to rebuild again.

70. This state of affairs is not an inevitable consequence of a decline in the capacity to produce wealth. I see no reason why, with good management, real wages should be reduced on average. It is the consequence of a wrong monetary policy.

Reducing wages is never a good option to try to reactivate the economy, money must flow in order to grow.

71. Economics is a very dangerous science.

As economists, a bad prediction of the economic future can be disastrous for the people we advise.

72. Perhaps it is historically true that no order of society ever perishes except by its own hand.

Great civilizations have always ended up self-destructing, poor management can be fatal for any economy.

73. The next movement is with the head, and the fists must wait.

We must use our heads more and our hands less if we want to be able to achieve our personal goals in the future.

74. With what modus operandi does the credit crunch achieve this result? In no other way than by the deliberate intensification of unemployment.

If credit stops flowing to society, jobs will inevitably suffer.

75. Successful investing is anticipating the anticipations of others.

A great quote from John Maynard Keynes. In order to be more financially successful than others, we must follow this simple premise.

76. In peacetime, that is, the size of the pie depends on the amount of work done. But in wartime, the size of the cake is fixed. If we work harder, we can fight better. But we must not consume more.

During a war, food rationing has always been essential for an economy to survive in the long run.

77. If we deliberately aim at the impoverishment of Central Europe, revenge, I dare to predict, will not limp.

Keynes was fully aware that his actions could lead to a future reaction from Germany.

78. The power to habituate himself to his environment is a marked characteristic of humanity.

Human beings, indeed, always get used to our environment and the lifestyle that we observe in it.

79. If economists could become humble and competent people on the level of dentists, that would be splendid.

Economists are viewed with suspicion by a certain part of society, many people fail to understand them.

80. I may be influenced by what I consider to be justice and good sense, but the class struggle will find me on the side of the educated bourgeoisie.

This famous economist knew that he belonged to the bourgeois class, and as a good bourgeois that he was, he would always defend his own social class.