John Maynard Keynes

"The difficulty lies not in the new ideas, but in escaping from the old ones."

"In the long run we are all dead."

"Ideas are more powerful than vested interests."

"The market can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent."

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

"The day is coming when a single carrot, freshly observed, will start a revolution."

"When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?"

"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world."

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

"The love of money as a possession is quite different from the love of money as a means of enjoyment and appreciation."

"I work not primarily for the money or success, but because the work is intrinsically interesting."

"The best way to destroy capitalism is to debauch the currency."

"There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency."

"Nothing is certain but death, taxes, and that government will always find a way to collect them."

"Economic progress may become less urgent once it reaches a certain point."

"I do not know which makes a man more Conservative to know nothing but the present, or nothing but the past."

"The general theory of employment, interest, and money is the foundation of our understanding."

"Worldly wisdom teaches that it is better for reputation to fail conventionally than to succeed unconventionally."

"When my information changes, I alter my conclusions. What do you do?"

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

"The beauty of a democratic system is that anyone can become president."

"I believe myself to be one of the few people who really understands the present situation."

"The long-term rate of interest is the key to understanding the economy."

"Our power to control the volume of money is absolute."

"Art and literature must be removed from the sphere of money-making."

"The person of imagination not only realizes the futility of effort, but by dreaming straightway achieves his purpose."

"I myself hold with Adam Smith that the real tragedy of the poor is the poverty of their desires."

"There are no poor nations only poor governments."

"Nothing is more important than common sense."

"The important thing for Government is not to do things which individuals are doing already, and to do them a little better or a little worse."