John Maynard

John Maynard
ought wild words
Words ought to be a little wild for they are the assaults of thought on the unthinking.
current guide misleading run
But this long run is a misleading guide to current affairs. In the long run we are all dead.
compared gradual ideas interests power vastly
The power of vested interests is vastly exaggerated compared with the gradual encroachment of ideas
change facts
When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?
education
Education is the inculcation of the incomprehensible into the indifferent by the incompetent
fail reputation succeed teaches wisdom worldly
Worldly wisdom teaches that it is better for the reputation to fail conventionally than to succeed unconventionally
disgusting life love means money possession realities recognized somewhat
The love of money as a possession - as distinguished from the love of money as a means to the enjoyments and realities of life - will be recognized for what it is, a somewhat disgusting morbidity, one of those semi-criminal, semi-pathological propens
owe problem
If I owe you a pound, I have a problem; but if I owe you a million, the problem is yours.
avarice fair foul gods hundred longer ourselves precaution useful
For at least another hundred years we must preÂtend to ourselves and to every one that fair is foul and foul is fair; for foul is useful and fair is not. Avarice and usury and precaution must be our gods for a little longer still.
best capitalist continuing destroy process secretly system wealth
The best way to destroy the capitalist system is to debauch the currency. By a continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens.
insightful investing
It is better to be roughly right than precisely wrong.
real digging-a-hole filled-up
If the Treasury were to fill old bottles with bank-notes, bury them at suitable depths in disused coal-mines which are then filled up to the surface with town rubbish, and leave it to private enterprise on well-tried principles of laissez-faire to dig the notes up again (the right to do so being obtained, of course, by tendering for leases of the note-bearing territory), there need be no more unemployment and, with the help of repercussions, the real income of the community, and its capital wealth, would probably become a good deal greater than it actually is.
regarded
Regarded as a means, (the businessman) is tolerable; as an end, he is not so satisfactory
found harm promptly
There is no harm in being sometimes wrong- especially if one is promptly found out.