John Maynard Keynes

"We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started."

"The reader will observe that quotations occupy a considerable proportion of the essay."

"Successful investing is about having patience, discipline, and a long-term perspective."

"One cannot sharply distinguish between the intellectual convictions and the emotional preferences of an individual."

"It is a curious thing that every economist has found from the earliest times down to yesterday that the Voice of Truth has been constantly cheering him on."

"The social object of skilled investment should be to defeat the dark forces of time and ignorance."

"Consumption is the sole end and object of all economic activity."

"I am sure that the power of vested interests is vastly exaggerated compared with the gradual encroachment of ideas."

"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."

"Most of the problems of civilization and of individuals are due to the poor quality of our thinking about them."

"The distinction between a casino economy and a productive economy is crucial."

"An ounce of therapy is better than a pound of cure."

"The art of economics lies in making a model of the economy as a whole."

"Beauty is a higher power, a witness to the absolute."

"The price system works itself."

"What a country mostly needs is wisdom in its public councils and moderation in private life."

"I do not believe that the existing order of society is just."

"The fundamental cause of trouble in the world today is that the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt."

"We are not all Socialists, and we do not want to be."

"The problem of want and poverty and the insecurity of employment is capable of solution."

"Saving is a private virtue and a public vice."

"One's extraordinary efforts may only lead one a very short way; but if nothing is attempted, nothing is achieved."

"The civilization of which we are the trustees is literally a new thing in human history."

"I find myself more and more inclined to believe that the fault in our economic system lies in the impersonal character of our productive operations."

"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."

"I don't think I know of anything more important than the truth."

"Quantitative skill in economics is no guarantee of wisdom, and qualitative judgment no guarantee of accuracy."

"We are capable of reordering the world according to the dictates of reason rather than the dictates of fear."

"One's religion, in whatever form it takes, is of paramount importance and not to be lightly modified."

"The financial institutions that are supposed to control themselves have utterly failed."