Thaler, Richard

"We are all works in progress, learning and adapting."

"Behavioral economics is ultimately about helping people flourish."

"Understanding our biases liberates us to make better decisions."

"The most effective policies work with human nature, not against it."

"We have more influence over our futures than we think possible."

"Better systems empower better people to make better choices."

"The most important thing to understand about human behavior is that people are not rational economic actors. We are predictably irrational."

"We live in the world, but we think in the world we expect to live in."

"Money is a tool for achieving your goals. It's not the goal itself."

"People are willing to take great risks to avoid small losses."

"The way we frame a choice dramatically influences the decision we make."

"We are loss averse - we feel the pain of losing $10 more than the pleasure of gaining $10."

"Choice architecture matters enormously. How options are presented affects what people choose."

"Anchoring is powerful - the first number you see influences all subsequent judgments."

"We overvalue what we own compared to what we don't own. That's the endowment effect."

"A rational person considers all options. A human being considers what comes to mind."

"Nudges work because people are lazy. We follow the path of least resistance."

"The best way to help people make better decisions is to make the good choice easy."

"We care about being treated fairly, even when it costs us money."

"Effort and ease shape our preferences in ways economists completely ignored."

"Self-control is a limited resource that gets depleted with use."

"People are not trying to be irrational. They're just working with limited time and information."

"Defaults are destiny. Most people stay with what's pre-selected for them."

"We are overconfident about what we know and what we can control."

"Sunk costs should not influence future decisions, yet they dominate human behavior."

"People like to have options, even when having more options makes them worse off."

"The 'decoy effect' shows that adding a worse option makes people more likely to choose the premium option."

"We heavily discount the future in ways that don't match economic theory."

"Happiness comes not from getting what you want, but from having what you have."

"Mental accounting shows we treat money differently depending on its source and intended use."