It would be foolish, in forming our expectations, to attach great weight to matters which are very uncertain.
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.
I am myself impressed by the great social advantages of increasing the stock of capital until it ceases to be scarce.
The destruction of the inducement to invest by an excessive liquidity-preference was the outstanding evil, the prime impediment to the growth of wealth, in the ancient and medieval worlds.
The great events of history are often due to secular changes in the growth of population and other fundamental economic causes, which, escaping by their gradual character the notice of contemporary observers, are attributed to the follies of statesmen or the fanaticism of atheists .
The duty of “saving” became nine-tenths of virtue and the growth of the cake the object of true religion.
But the dreams of designing diplomats do not always prosper, and we must trust the future .
Economic privation proceeds by easy stages, and so long as men suffer it patiently the outside world cares little.
All the political parties alike have their origins in past ideas and not in new ideas and none more conspicuously so than the Marxists .
Adam Smith and Malthus and Ricardo ! There is something about these three figures to evoke more than ordinary sentiments from us their children in the spirit.
I don’t feel the least humble before the vastness of the heavens.
Investment based on genuine long-term expectations is so difficult today as to be scarcely practicable.
I can’t remember my telephone number, but I know it was in the high numbers.
Like all his type, Newton was wholly aloof from women.
I know of only three people who really understand money. A professor at another university. One of my students. And a rather junior clerk at the Bank of England.
In this autumn of 1919, in which I write, we are at the dead season of our fortunes.
I conceive, therefore, that a somewhat comprehensive socialisation of investment will prove the means of securing an approximation to full employment.
The considerations upon which expectations of prospective yields are based are partly existing facts which we can assume to be known more or less for certain, and partly future events which can only be forecasted with more or less confidence.
Whenever you save five shillings you put a man out of work for a day.
To suggest social action for the public good to the city London is like discussing The Origin of Species to a Bishop sixty years ago.