John Maynard Keynes

"The worst error a statesman can make is to allow the perfect to become the enemy of the good."

"I find that it is far better to be without a belief than to have a false one."

"Most of the questions which have been matters of violent controversy in our time can be settled by statistical analysis."

"The continuity of our institutions and traditions and constitutional settlement is an achievement of the first importance."

"A review of the causes of civilisation and of its dangers reveals how mixed and complex are the roots of our well-being."

"It is not a matter of whether one approves of gambling, but rather a question of the mathematics of chance."

"The man of business who thinks that the world is conducted on business lines has no understanding of history."

"A practical man is a man who practices the errors of his predecessors."

"We choose our wives as we choose our investments—with hope, and sometimes with prudence."

"The love of beauty is our only bulwark against the barbarian."

"If I had to give my life to one cause, it would be the elimination of poverty."

"The future is uncertain, and that is the only certainty."

"The central problem of capitalism is the provision of stable employment."

"The level of effective demand is the missing link in economic theory."

"We are not slaves to the past, but neither are we free from it."

"I do not believe in austerity as a national policy in boom times or in slump."

"The beauty of mathematics is that it allows the most precise statement of the most complex relationships."