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John Maynard Keynes

136 quotes

“We and France have only sacrificed our honour and our engagements to a civilised and faithful nation, and fraternised with what is vile.”
John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) first seen 1931 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Article in The New Statesman on the Munich Agreement (8 October 1939), quoted in The New Statesman and Nation, Volume 16, p. 519 and Kingsley Martin, Editor: A Second Volume of Autobiography, 1931–45 (1968), p. 273
“The intelligentsia of the Left were the loudest in demanding that the Nazi aggression should be resisted at all costs; when it comes to a showdown, scarce four weeks have passed before they remember that they are pacifists and write defeatist letters to your columns, leaving the defence of Freedom to Colonel Blimp and the Old School Tie, for whom three cheers.”
John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) first seen 1939 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to The New Statesman (14 October 1939), quoted in Joel Greenberg, Gordon Welchman: Bletchley Park's Architect of Ultra Intelligence (2014), p. 11
“Money is only important for what it will procure. Thus a change in the monetary unit, which is uniform in its operation and affects all transactions equally, has no consequences. If, by a change in the established standard of value, a man received and owned twice as much money as he did before in payment for all rights and for all efforts, and if he also paid out twice as much money for all acquisitions and for all satisfactions, he would be wholly unaffected.”
John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) first seen 1923 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Social Consequences of Changes in The Value of Money" (1923)
“The best way to cure this mortal disease of individualism must be to provide that there shall never exist any confident expectation either that prices generally are going to fall or that they are going to rise; and also that there shall be no serious risk that a movement, if it does occur, will be a big one. If, unexpectedly and accidentally, a moderate movement were to occur, wealth, though it might be redistributed, would not be diminished thereby.”
John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) first seen 1923 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Social Consequences of Changes in The Value of Money" (1923)
“Inflation is unjust and Deflation is inexpedient. Of the two perhaps Deflation is, if we rule out exaggerated inflations such as that of Germany, the worse; because it is worse, in an impoverished world, to provoke unemployment than to disappoint the rentier. But it is not necessary that we should weigh one evil against the other. It is easier to agree that both are evils to be shunned.”
John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) first seen 1923 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Social Consequences of Changes in The Value of Money" (1923)
“This state of affairs is not an inevitable consequence of a decreased capacity to produce wealth. I see no reason why, with good management, real wages need be reduced on the average. It is the consequence of a misguided monetary policy.”
John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) first seen 1925 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Economic Consequences of Mr. Churchill" (1925)
“By what modus operandi does credit restriction attain this result? In no other way than by the deliberate intensification of unemployment.”
John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) first seen 1925 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Economic Consequences of Mr. Churchill" (1925)
“Are the solutions offered us always to be too late? Shall we in Great Britain invite three-quarters of the world, including the whole of our Empire, to join with us in evolving a new currency system which shall be stable in terms of commodities? Or would the gold standard countries be interested to learn the terms, which must needs be strict, on which we should be prepared to re-enter the system of a drastically reformed gold standard?”
John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) first seen 1931 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The End of Gold Standard" (1931)
“Leninism is a combination of two things which Europeans have kept for some centuries in different compartments of the soul — religion and business. We are shocked because the religion is new, and contemptuous because the business, being subordinated to the religion instead of the other way round, is highly inefficient.”
John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) first seen 1925 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Short View of Russia" (1925); Originally three essays for the Nation and Athenaeum, later published separately as A Short View of Russia (1925), then edited down for publication in Essays in Persuasion (1931)
“Comfort and habits let us be ready to forgo, but I am not ready for a creed which does not care how much it destroys the liberty and security of daily life, which uses deliberately the weapons of persecution, destruction and international strife. How can I admire a policy which finds a characteristic expression in spending millions to suborn spies in every family and group at home, and to stir up trouble abroad?”
John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) first seen 1925 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Short View of Russia" (1925); Originally three essays for the Nation and Athenaeum, later published separately as A Short View of Russia (1925), then edited down for publication in Essays in Persuasion (1931)
“How can I accept a doctrine which sets up as its bible, above and beyond criticism, an obsolete economic textbook which I know to be not only scientifically erroneous but without interest or application for the modern world? How can I adopt a creed which, preferring the mud to the fish, exalts the boorish proletariat above the bourgeois and the intelligentsia who, with whatever faults, are the quality in life and surely carry the seeds of all human advancement?”
John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) first seen 1925 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Short View of Russia" (1925); Originally three essays for the Nation and Athenaeum, later published separately as A Short View of Russia (1925), then edited down for publication in Essays in Persuasion (1931)
“If one is born a political animal, it is most uncomfortable not to belong to a political party; cold and lonely and futile it is.”
John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) first seen 1925 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Am I a Liberal?" (1925)
“So the political animal who cannot bring himself to utter the contemptible words, "I am no party man," would almost rather belong to any party than to none. If he cannot find a home by the principle of attraction, he must find one by the principle of repulsion... rather than stay out in the cold.”
John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) first seen 1925 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Am I a Liberal?" (1925)
“How could I bring myself to be a Conservative? They offer me neither food nor drink—neither intellectual nor spiritual consolation. I should not be amused or excited or edified. That which is common to the atmosphere, the mentality, the view of life... promotes neither my self-interest nor the public good. It leads nowhere; it satisfies no ideal; it conforms to no intellectual standard; it is not even safe, or calculated to preserve from spoilers that degree of civilisation which we have already attained.”
John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) first seen 1925 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Am I a Liberal?" (1925)
“On the negative test, I incline to believe that the Liberal Party is still the best instrument of future progress—if only it had strong leadership and the right programme.”
John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) first seen 1925 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Am I a Liberal?" (1925)
“But when we come to consider the problem of party positively—by what attracts... the aspect is dismal in every party alike, whether we put our hopes in measures or in men. ...The historic party questions of the nineteenth century are as dead as last week's mutton; and whilst the questions of the future are looming up, they have not yet become party questions, and they cut across the old party lines.”
John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) first seen 1925 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Am I a Liberal?" (1925)
“A study of the history of opinion is a necessary preliminary to the emancipation of the mind.”
John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) first seen 1926 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The End of Laissez-faire" (1926); Full text online; Ch. 1
“I do not know which makes a man more conservative — to know nothing but the present, or nothing but the past.”
John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) first seen 1926 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The End of Laissez-faire" (1926); Full text online; Ch. 1
“The phrase laissez-faire is not to be found in the works of Adam Smith, of Ricardo, or of Malthus. Even the idea is not present in a dogmatic form in any of these authors. Adam Smith, of course, was a Free Trader and an opponent of many eighteenth-century restrictions on trade. But his attitude towards the Navigation Acts and the usury laws shows that he was not dogmatic. Even his famous passage about 'the invisible hand' reflects the philosophy which we associate with Paley rather than the economic dogma of laissez-faire.”
John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) first seen 1926 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The End of Laissez-faire" (1926); Full text online; Ch. 2
“For my part I think that capitalism, wisely managed, can probably be made more efficient for attaining economic ends than any alternative system yet in sight, but that in itself it is in many ways extremely objectionable.”
John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) first seen 1926 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The End of Laissez-faire" (1926); Full text online; Ch. 5
“Most men love money and security more, and creation and construction less, as they get older.”
John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) first seen 1927 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Clissold" (1927); appeared in the Nation and Athenaeum (1927)
“The increase of technical efficiency has been taking place faster than we can deal with the problem of labour absorption; the improvement in the standard of life has been a little too quick; the banking and monetary system of the world has been preventing the rate of interest from falling as fast as equilibrium requires.”
John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) first seen 1930 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren (1930)
“If economists could manage to get themselves thought of as humble, competent people on a level with dentists, that would be splendid.”
John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) first seen 1930 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren" (1930); appeared in the Nation and Athenaeum (1930)
“For many ages to come the old Adam will be so strong in us that everybody will need to do some work if he is to be contented. We shall do more things for ourselves than is usual with the rich to-day, only too glad to have small duties and tasks and routines. But beyond this, we shall endeavour to spread the bread thin on the butter-to make what work there is still to be done to be as widely shared as possible. Three-hour shifts or a fifteen-hour week may put off the problem for a great while. For three hours a day is quite enough to satisfy the old Adam in most of us!”
John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) first seen 1930 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren" (1930); appeared in the Nation and Athenaeum (1930)
“If Mr. Lloyd George had no good qualities, no charms, no fascinations, he would not be dangerous. If he were not a syren, we need not fear the whirlpools.”
John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) first seen 1923 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Mr. Lloyd George: A Fragment", p. 35; Originally published in The Nation and the Athenaeum, May 26, 1923.
“All the political parties alike have their origins in past ideas and not in new ideas — and none more conspicuously so than the Marxists.”
John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) first seen 1926 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Trotsky On England", p. 91; Originally published in The Nation and the Athenaeum, March 27, 1926.
“The next move is with the head, and fists must wait.”
John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) said by 1946 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Economics is a very dangerous science.”
John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) said by 1946 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Adam Smith and Malthus and Ricardo! There is something about these three figures to evoke more than ordinary sentiments from us their children in the spirit.”
John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) said by 1946 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is no harm in being sometimes wrong — especially if one is promptly found out.”
John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) said by 1946 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Jevons saw the kettle boil and cried out with the delighted voice of a child; Marshall too had seen the kettle boil and sat down silently to build an engine.”
John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) said by 1946 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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.”
John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) said by 1946 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The general theory of economic equilibrium was strengthened and made effective as an organon of thought by two powerful subsidiary conceptions — the Margin and Substitution. The notion of the Margin was extended beyond utility to describe the equilibrium point in given conditions of any economic factor which can be regarded as capable of small variations about a given value,or in its functional relation to a given value.”
John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) said by 1946 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There were endless possibilities, not out of reach.”
John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) said by 1946 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The atomic hypothesis which had worked so splendidly in Physics breaks down in Psychics.”
John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) first seen 1926 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Francis Ysidro Edgeworth", p. 286; Originally published in The Economic Journal, March 1926
“Marshall, remembering his mixed parentage, used to say 'Francis is a charming fellow, but you must be careful with Ysidro!'”
John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) said by 1946 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Logic, like lyrical poetry, is no employment for the middle-aged.”
John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) first seen 1930 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: F. P. Ramsey", p. 296; Originally published in The Economic Journal, March 1930. and The New Statesman and Nation, October 3, 1931
“I don't feel the least humble before the vastness of the heavens.”
John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) first seen 1930 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: F. P. Ramsey", p. 310; Originally published in The Economic Journal, March 1930. and The New Statesman and Nation, October 3, 1931
“The difficulty lies, not in the new ideas, but in escaping from the old ones, which ramify, for those brought up as most of us have been, into every corner of our minds.”
John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) said by 1946 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The outstanding faults of the economic society in which we live are its failure to provide for full employment and its arbitrary and inequitable distribution of wealth and incomes.”
John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) said by 1946 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is a grand book worthy of one’s hopes of you. A most powerful piece of well organized analysis with high aesthetic qualities, though written more perhaps than you see yourself for the cognoscenti in the temple and not for those at the gate. Anyhow I prefer it for intellectual enjoyment to any recent attempts in this vein.”
John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) first seen 1942 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Abba Lerner, 1942, On The Economics of Control
“Anything we can actually do we can afford.”
John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) first seen 1942 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1942. Published in Collected Writings Volume 27, Page 270. Quoted in Bruce Littleboy: "On Interpreting Keynes: A Study in Reconciliation" (1990), Pg 100.
“Newton was not the first of the age of reason. He was the last of the magicians, the last of the Babylonians and Sumerians, the last great mind that looked out on the visible and intellectual world with the same eyes as those who began to build our intellectual inheritance rather less than 10 000 years ago.”
John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) first seen 1942 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Newton, the Man"; address to the Royal Society Club (1942), read by Geoffrey Keynes at the Newton Tercentenary Celebrations (1946)
“His peculiar gift was the power of holding continuously in his mind a purely mental problem until he had seen it through.”
John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) first seen 1942 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Newton, the Man"; address to the Royal Society Club (1942), read by Geoffrey Keynes at the Newton Tercentenary Celebrations (1946)
“The old saying holds. Owe your banker £1000 and you are at his mercy; owe him £1 million and the position is reversed.”
John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) first seen 1945 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Overseas Financial Policy in Stage III" (memorandum circulated to the UK War Cabinet on 15 May 1945), published in
“The day is not far off when the economic problem will take the back seat where it belongs, and the arena of the heart and the head will be occupied or reoccupied, by our real problems — the problems of life and of human relations, of creation and behaviour and religion.”
John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) first seen 1945 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: First Annual Report of the Arts Council (1945-1946)
“They offer me neither food nor drink — intellectual nor spiritual consolation... [Conservatism] leads nowhere; it satisfies no ideal; it conforms to no intellectual standard, it is not safe, or calculated to preserve from the spoilers that degree of civilisation which we have already attained.”
John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) said by 1946 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On the Conservative Party; Skidelsky (1992:231) quoting Collected Writings Volume IX page 296-297
“There was an attraction at first that Mr Baldwin should not be clever. But when he forever sentimentalises about his own stupidity, the charm is broken.”
John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) said by 1946 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Skidelsky (1992:232) quoting Keynes Papers PS/6
“The book, as it stands, seems to me to be one of the most frightful muddles I have ever read, with scarcely a sound proposition in it beginning with page 45 [Hayek provided historical background up to page 45; after that came his theoretical model], and yet it remains a book of some interest, which is likely to leave its mark on the mind of the reader. It is an extraordinary example of how, starting with a mistake, a remorseless logician can end up in bedlam.”
John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) said by 1946 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is not easy for a free community to organise for war. We are not accustomed to listen to experts or prophets. Our strength lies in an ability to improvise. Yet an open mind to untried ideas is also necessary. No-one can say when the end will come. In the war services it is recognised that the best security for an early conclusion is a plan for long endurance.”
John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) said by 1946 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source