George Akerlof

"Education changes not just what we know, but who we are."

"The lemon market principle applies to love, friendship, and employment."

"Uncertainty is not the exception in human affairs; it is the rule."

"Good institutions reduce the cost of discovering what is true."

"The problem with efficiency is that it assumes what cannot be assumed."

"We are trapped in webs of incomplete information of our own making."

"Behavioral economics does not deny rationality; it merely admits its limits."

"The market reveals preferences, but it does not reveal truth."

"Poverty is partly a problem of information and partly a problem of trust."

"We invest in signals because reality is hidden."

"The gap between what we know and what we assume grows wider each day."

"Institutions are humanity's attempt to overcome its own nature."

"Economic analysis without psychology is analysis without humanity."

"The cost of being wrong is higher than the cost of finding out."

"Beautiful theories often collapse when they meet beautiful people."

"We are all asymmetrically informed about ourselves."

"The most important markets are those we do not recognize as markets."

"Trust grows in the space between rationality and doubt."

"Every transaction is a small act of social cooperation."

"The invisible hand is less about efficiency and more about survival."

"We design institutions not for the ideal but for the real."

"Information is power, but only if you know how to use it."

"The study of economics is the study of human limitation."

"Markets work best when they work least like markets."

"Bad information is worse than no information."

"We are all constantly trying to signal our quality to the world."

"The rational person is a myth we have not yet outgrown."

"Efficiency without equity is injustice."

"The cost of trust is less than the cost of verification."

"We live in a world not of perfect information but of meaningful uncertainty."