Joseph Schumpeter

"The destruction of capitalism by its own achievements is not a prophecy but a logical deduction."

"Individuals and groups can experience the psychological impact of inequality while remaining materially comfortable."

"The power to control the demand for commodities rests with the consumer rather than with production."

"Statistics are like bikinis: what they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is essential."

"Democracy is a system in which decisions of reasonable social importance are left to the vote of the majority."

"Epochs of creation are followed by epochs of appropriation."

"The function of saving is to make possible the realization of those new combinations that are not compatible with existing conditions."

"The economic process must be viewed as a constant revolutionization of the economic structure."

"No one is anybody without a background of facts and traditions."

"That most powerful of all economic institutions, competition, is the real regulator of the economy."

"The question whether mankind can or cannot do without working for at least part of the time is really a question of what mankind is to be and do."

"We cannot construct a system of thought that will satisfy all possible demands and criticisms."

"The real crisis of modern capitalism is not in the realm of production, but in the realm of authority and moral conviction."

"Imitation is the sincerest form of compliment, but it is also the most frustrating form of competition."

"Evolution in economic life is not a matter of logical necessity but of historical accident."

"The entrepreneur who succeeds is not the one who maximizes profit in every transaction, but the one who builds something lasting."

"People who are not trained in economic theory often have clearer insights into economic reality than those who are."

"The world is not run by those who make the loudest noise, but by those who control the flow of economic resources."

"All this meant that bourgeois society was becoming a house divided against itself, politically as well as spiritually."

"The typical businessman lacks the capacity for detached analytical judgment necessary for understanding his own position."

"Successful innovation requires an environment that tolerates not just change, but failure."

"What the businessman is most likely to be interested in is quick profit without regard to the long-term consequences of his actions."

"The ability to perceive new combinations is what separates the entrepreneur from the ordinary economic agent."

"Most people overestimate what they can accomplish in one year and underestimate what they can accomplish in ten years."

"There is no problem of production, only problems of distribution and consumption."

"The intellectual is a man who speaks or acts on subjects on which he is not primarily engaged to earn his living."

"The process of economic change is the force that shapes the social structure and determines the historical course."

"Those who can imagine the future are those who will build it."

"The capitalist achievement does not typically consist in providing more silk stockings for queens but in bringing them within reach of factory girls."

"Economists are not infallible guides to economic reality; they are merely students of it like any other observers."