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Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men, for the nastiest of reasons, will somehow work for the benefit of us all.

John Maynard Keynes

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John Maynard Keynes
Age: 62 †
Born: 1883
Born: June 5
Died: 1946
Died: April 21
Businessperson
Diplomat
Economist
Mathematician
Non-Fiction Writer
Philosopher
Politician
Professor
Lord Keynes
Baron Keynes of Tilton
Benefits
Belief
Peace
Nastiest
Reason
Benefit
Work
Somehow
Men
Capitalism
Reasons
Extraordinary

More quotes by John Maynard Keynes

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Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone.
John Maynard Keynes
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A study of the history of opinion is a necessary preliminary to the emancipation of the mind.
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The Class war will find me on the side of the educated bourgeoisie.
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The key to selecting the winner isn't choosing the face you think is the most beautiful but rather the face other people will pick
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The duty of saving became nine-tenths of virtue and the growth of the cake the object of true religion.
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The political problem of mankind is to combine three things: economic efficiency, social justice and individual liberty.
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The disruptive powers of excessive national fecundity may have played a greater part in bursting the bonds of convention than either the power of ideas or the errors of autocracy.
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It is the long-term investor...who will in practice come in for the most criticism... For it is the essence of his behavior that he should be eccentric, unconventional, and rash in the eyes of average opinion
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When the accumulation of wealth is no longer of high social importance, there will be great changes in the code of morals. We shall be able to rid ourselves of many of the pseudo-moral principles which have hag-ridden us for two hundred years, by which we have exulted some of the most distasteful of human qualities into the highest virtues.
John Maynard Keynes
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They offer me neither food nor drink - intellectual nor spiritual consolation... [Conservatism] leads nowhere it satisfies no ideal it conforms to no intellectual standard, it is not safe, or calculated to preserve from the spoilers that degree of civilization which we have already attained.
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If human nature felt no temptation to take a chance there might not be much investment merely as a result of cold calculation.
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I am myself impressed by the great social advantages of increasing the stock of capital until it ceases to be scarce.
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Government machinery has been described as a marvelous labor saving device which enables ten men to do the work of one.
John Maynard Keynes
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If farming were to be organised like the stock market, a farmer would sell his farm in the morning when it was raining, only to buy it back in the afternoon when the sun came out.
John Maynard Keynes
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Americans are apt to be unduly interested in discovering what average opinion believes average opinion to be.
John Maynard Keynes
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But my lord, when we addressed this issue a few years ago, didn't you argue the other side? He said, That's true, but when I get more evidence I sometimes change my mind. What do you do?
John Maynard Keynes
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It is generally agreed that casinos should, in the public interest, be inaccessible and expensive. And perhaps the same is true of Stock Exchanges.
John Maynard Keynes
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When somebody persuades me I am wrong, I change my mind.
John Maynard Keynes
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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.
John Maynard Keynes
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This long run is a misleading guide to current affairs. In the long run we are all dead. Economists set themselves too easy, too useless a task if in tempestuous seasons they can only tell us that when the storm is long past the ocean is flat again.
John Maynard Keynes