John Maynard
John Maynard
optimistic acting pessimistic
If we consistently act on the optimistic hypothesis, this hypothesis will tend to be realised; whilst by acting on the pessimistic hypothesis we can keep ourselves for ever in the pit of want.
shapes wealth investment
It is investment, i.e. the increased production of material wealth in the shape of capital goods, which alone increases national wealth.
safety needs resources
An investor who proposes to ignore near-term market fluctuations needs greater resources for safety and must not operate on so large a scale, if at all, with borrowed money.
civilization tests profit
Once we allow ourselves to be disobedient to the test of an accountant's profit, we have begun to change our civilization.
heart our-generation space
To our generation Einstein has been made to become a double symbol - a symbol of the mind travelling in the cold regions of space, and a symbol of the brave and generous outcast, pure in heart and cheerful of spirit.
education laughter inspiration
Whenever you save five shillings you put a man out of work for a day.
integrity population would-be
Nothing can preserve the integrity of contact between individuals, except a discretionary authority in the state to revise what has become intolerable. The powers of uninterrupted usury are too great. If the accretions of vested interests were to grow without mitigation for many generations, half the population would be no better than slaves to the other half.
mistake long good-things
It is a good thing to make mistakes so long as you're found out quickly.
decay world may
It is Enterprise which build and improves the world's possessions...If Enterprise is afoot, Wealth accumulates whatever may be happening to Thrift; and if Enterprise is asleep, Wealth decays, whatever Thrift may be doing.
struggle class want
The Economic Problem...the problem of want and poverty and the economic struggle between classes and nations, is nothing but a frightful muddle, a transitory and unnecessary muddle.
quality mud faults
How can I adopt a creed which, preferring the mud to the fish, exalts the boorish proletariat above the bourgeois and the intelligentsia who, with whatever faults, are the quality in life and surely carry the seeds of all human advancement?
mets train
God has arrived. I met him on the 5:15 train.
ideas encroachment interest
I am sure that the power of vested interests is vastly exaggerated compared with the gradual encroachment of ideas.
zero supposing-that may
If I am right in supposing it to be comparatively easy to make capital-goods so abundant that the marginal efficiency of capital is zero, this may be the most sensible way of gradually getting rid of many of the objectionable features of capitalism.