George Akerlof

"The best institutions align incentives with ethics."

"To understand markets, you must understand people."

"The invisible hand sometimes slaps us in the face."

"We are more than rational actors in an economic world."

"Information asymmetry is the secret history of capitalism."

"Trust is the lubricant that makes society run."

"The problem with models is that they model problems."

"We cannot escape uncertainty; we can only learn to live with it."

"Bad coffee drives out good coffee when customers cannot taste the difference."

"Every job interview is a game of asymmetric information."

"The market for ideas is different from the market for goods."

"We invest in education because we invest in the future."

"The rational choice theory assumes what it must prove."

"Institutions matter because individuals are limited."

"The cost of distrust is paid in broken societies."

"We signal quality because quality is hidden."

"The invisible hand is visible only to the blind."

"Economics is the art of understanding what we cannot know."

"Information gaps are where markets fail and society must step in."

"We are all selling something, even if it is just ourselves."

"The problem with being informed is knowing how little you know."

"Trust is built on small acts repeated many times."

"The best markets are those built on the best information."

"We cannot optimize what we cannot measure."

"The invisible hand is often the hand of power."

"Behavioral economics is economics taking humans seriously."

"The cost of a lie is greater than the gain."

"We live by trust, not by calculation."

"The market reveals what we value, not what is valuable."

"Information is the currency of the modern world."