John Maynard Keynes

"Art is our effort to escape reality."

"The problem of want and poverty and the economic struggle between classes and nations is the primary, the fundamental problem of the human being."

"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."

"Save what you can and you can never become poor."

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

"Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist."

"I trace the connection between the financial recommendations of the experts and their social philosophy."

"There is no harm in being sometimes wrong—especially if one is promptly found out."

"The beauty and mystery of the world only grow in proportion as one's knowledge increases."

"The age of reason is dead. The age of emotion has begun."

"Nothing mattered except states of mind, chiefly our own."

"The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood."

"This is not a proposal for a world economy; it is a proposal for the abolition of the present arrangements."

"I do not think the very wealthy are to be envied. There is far more interesting things to do with one's life."

"The true test of civilization is not the census, nor the size of cities, but the kind of man the country turns out."

"Convention is to blame for much blind waste and empty ritual in social behaviour."

"It is astonishing what foolish things one can temporarily believe if one thinks too long alone, particularly in economics."

"The economic life of Britain is a whole, and you cannot deal with one part of it separately."

"Unemployment is not a mere misfortune. In a wealthy society it is a scandal."

"I work not as a crusader, but as a student of the actual facts."

"When you expect a thing to happen you think you have made it happen."

"The prime cure for high unemployment is a fall in the rate of interest."

"To love the game is the condition under which great things are accomplished."

"The evidence against civilisation is overwhelming."

"One cannot usually Page two blanks and hope they will be filled in with something sensible."

"The day is not far off when the economic problem will take the back seat where it belongs."

"It is ideas, not vested interests, which are dangerous for good or evil."

"I am myself convinced that the cure for unemployment is to be found in a drastic policy of investment in durable assets."

"Economic theory has become more and more abstract and precious."

"The gold standard is already a barbarous relic."