The Economist's quotations on Economics

The Economist's A-Z of business quotations featured quotations on economics.  The quotations include the following.

"Mathematics brought rigor to Economics. Unfortunately, it also brought mortis."
Kenneth Boulding, economist (1910–93)

"The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design."
Friedrich Hayek, economist (1899–1992), The Fatal Conceit: The Errors of Socialism (1988)

"Give me a one-handed economist. All my economists say, on the one hand … on the other …"
Harry S. Truman, American president (1884–1972)

"If economists could manage to get themselves thought of as humble, competent people on a level with dentists, that would be splendid."
John Maynard Keynes, “The Future”, Essays in Persuasion (1931)

"Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist. Madmen in authority, who hear voices in the air, are distilling their frenzy from some academic scribbler of a few years back."
Paul Samuelson, economist (1915–2009), Inside the Economist’s Mind (2006)

"If all the economists were laid end to end, they’d never reach a conclusion."
George Bernard Shaw, playwright (1856–1950)

"The first lesson of economics is scarcity: there is never enough of anything to fully satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics."
Thomas Sowell, economist (1930–), Is Reality Optional? and Other Essays (1993)

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