Economist

Explore 87 quotes by Economists

It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.

Adam Smith

The Wealth of Nations

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Topic

Self-interest Free market Capitalism

Author

Adam Smith

Source

The Wealth of Nations

Genre

Economic literature

Language

English

Time

1776 1770s 18th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Smith, Adam. The Wealth of Nations. Vol. 1, London: W. Strahan and T. Cadell, 1776, bk. 1, ch. 2.

Current Citation

Smith, Adam. The Wealth of Nations, edited by Edwin Cannan. The Modern Library, bk. 1, ch. 2.

The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains.

Karl Marx

The Communist Manifesto

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Topic

Revolution Class conflict Oppression Politics

Author

Karl Marx

Source

The Communist Manifesto

Medium

Pamphlet

Genre

Political literature Economic literature

Language

German

Time

1848 1840s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Marx, Karl and Friedrich Engels [published anonymously]. Manifest der kommunistischen Partei [Manifesto of the Communist Party]. London: Gedruckt in der Office der Bildungs-Gesellschaft für Arbeiter, 1848.

Current Citation

Marx, Karl and Friedrich Engels. The Communist Manifesto, translated by Samuel Moore and Friedrich Engels. Penguin Classics, 2002.

The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.

Karl Marx

The Communist Manifesto

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Topic

Class conflict Oppression History

Author

Karl Marx

Source

The Communist Manifesto

Medium

Pamphlet

Genre

Political literature Economic literature

Language

German

Time

1848 1840s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Marx, Karl and Friedrich Engels [published anonymously]. Manifest der kommunistischen Partei [Manifesto of the Communist Party]. London: Gedruckt in der Office der Bildungs-Gesellschaft für Arbeiter, 1848.

Current Citation

Marx, Karl and Friedrich Engels. The Communist Manifesto, translated by Samuel Moore and Friedrich Engels. Penguin Classics, 2002.

From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs!

Karl Marx

Read Critique of the Gotha Programme at marxists.org

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Topic

Redistribution of wealth Socialism Communism Political theory Politics

Author

Karl Marx

Source

Critique of the Gotha Programme

Genre

Political literature Economic literature

Statement Type

Precepts and axioms

Language

German

Time

1883 1880s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Marx, Karl. Kritik des Gothaer Programms [Critique of the Gotha Programme]. Berlin: Friedrich Engels, 1891, pt. 1.

Current Citation

Marx, Karl. Critique of the Gotha Program, translated by Kevin B. Anderson. PM Press, 2022, pt. 1.

The ruling ideas of each age have ever been the ideas of its ruling class.

Karl Marx

The Communist Manifesto

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Topic

Ruling class Class conflict History of ideas Ideas

Author

Karl Marx

Source

The Communist Manifesto

Medium

Pamphlet

Genre

Political literature Economic literature

Language

German

Time

1848 1840s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Marx, Karl and Friedrich Engels [published anonymously]. Manifest der kommunistischen Partei [Manifesto of the Communist Party]. London: Gedruckt in der Office der Bildungs-Gesellschaft für Arbeiter, 1848.

Current Citation

Marx, Karl and Friedrich Engels. The Communist Manifesto, translated by Samuel Moore and Friedrich Engels. Penguin Classics, 2002.

A spectre is haunting Europe—the spectre of Communism.

Karl Marx

The Communist Manifesto

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Topic

Communism

Author

Karl Marx

Source

The Communist Manifesto

Medium

Pamphlet

Genre

Political literature Economic literature

Language

German

Time

1848 1840s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Marx, Karl and Friedrich Engels [published anonymously]. Manifest der kommunistischen Partei [Manifesto of the Communist Party]. London: Gedruckt in der Office der Bildungs-Gesellschaft für Arbeiter, 1848.

Current Citation

Marx, Karl and Friedrich Engels. The Communist Manifesto, translated by Samuel Moore and Friedrich Engels. Penguin Classics, 2002.

Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world…it is the opium of the people.

Karl Marx

Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right

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Topic

Decline of religion Religion

Author

Karl Marx

Source

Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

German

Time

1883 1880s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Marx, Karl. Zur Kritik der Hegelschen Rechtspilosophie [On the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Law]. Frankfurt, 1927.

Current Citation

Marx, Karl. A Critique of Hegel's "Philosophy of Right". Cambridge University Press, 2009.

Hegel remarks somewhere that all great world-historic facts and personages appear, so to speak, twice. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.

Karl Marx

The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte

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Topic

History repeating itself History

Author

Karl Marx

Source

The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte

Medium

Essay

Genre

Historical literature Political literature

Language

German

Time

1852 1850s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Marx, Karl. "Der 18te Brumaire des Louis Napoleon [The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon]." Die Revolution [The Revolution], 1852.

Current Citation

Marx, Karl. "The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon." The Political Writings, edited by David Fernbach. Verso, 2019.

The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it.

Karl Marx

Theses on Feurbach

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Topic

Revolution Words vs. actions Political progress Progress

Author

Karl Marx

Source

Theses on Feurbach

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

German

Time

1845 1840s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Marx, Karl. Theses On Feuerbach. Friedrich Engels, c. 1888.

Current Citation

Marx, Karl. The German Ideology, including Theses on Feuerbach, translated by Friedrich Engels. Prometheus, 1998.

Man naturally desires, not only to be loved, but to be lovely; or to be that thing which is the natural and proper object of love.

Adam Smith

The Theory of Moral Sentiments

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Topic

Human needs Character

Author

Adam Smith

Source

The Theory of Moral Sentiments

Genre

Economic literature Philosophical literature

Language

English

Time

1759 1750s 18th century

Era

Age of Enlightenment

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Smith, Adam. The Theory of Moral Sentiments. London: Andrew Millar/Edinburgh: Alexander Kincaid and J. Bell, 1759, pt. 3, ch. 2.

Current Citation

Smith, Adam. The Theory of Moral Sentiments, edited by Ryan Patrick Hanley. Penguin Books, 2009, pt. 3, ch. 2.

Every individual necessarily labours to render the annual revenue of the society as great as he can. He generally, indeed, neither intends to promote the public interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it... he intends only his own security... and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention.

Adam Smith

The Wealth of Nations

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Topic

Invisible hand Self-interest Unintended consequences

Author

Adam Smith

Source

The Wealth of Nations

Genre

Economic literature

Language

English

Time

1776 1770s 18th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Smith, Adam. The Wealth of Nations. Vol. 2, London: W. Strahan and T. Cadell 1776, bk. 4, ch. 2.

Current Citation

Smith, Adam. The Wealth of Nations, edited by Edwin Cannan. The Modern Library, 2000, bk. 4, ch. 2.

But this long run is a misleading guide to current affairs. In the long run we are all dead.

John Maynard Keynes

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Topic

The future The long run Economic theory Economics Death

Author

John Maynard Keynes

Source

A Tract on Monetary Reform

Genre

Economic literature

Language

English

Time

1924 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 0

Original Citation

Keynes, John Maynard. A Tract on Monetary Reform. MacMillan and Co., 1924, p. 80.

Current Citation

Keynes, John Maynard. "A Tract on Monetary Reform (1923)." The Essential Keynes, edited by Robert Skidelsky. Penguin, 2016.

It was not the power of the Spaniards that destroyed the Aztec Empire but the disbelief of the Aztecs in themselves.

E.F. Schumacher

More information about this quote

Topic

Societal collapse Self-doubt

Author

E.F. Schumacher

Medium

Essay

Language

English

Time

1962 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Schumacher, Ernst Friedrich. Roots of Economic Growth. Gandhian Institute of Studies, 1962.

Men make their own history, but they do not make it just as they please; they do not make it under circumstances chosen by themselves, but under circumstances directly encountered, given and transmitted from the past. The tradition of all the dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brain of the living.

Karl Marx

The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte

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Topic

Free will Decisions and choices Effects of the past

Author

Karl Marx

Source

The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte

Medium

Essay

Genre

Historical literature Political literature

Language

German

Time

1852 1850s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Marx, Karl. "Der 18te Brumaire des Louis Napoleon [The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon]." Die Revolution [The Revolution], 1852.

Current Citation

Marx, Karl. "The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon." The Political Writings, edited by David Fernbach. Verso, 2019.

With the greater part of rich people, the chief enjoyment of riches consists in the parade of riches; which, in their eye is never so complete as when they appear to possess those decisive marks of opulence which nobody can possess but themselves.

Adam Smith

The Wealth of Nations

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Topic

The rich Display of wealth Status games

Author

Adam Smith

Source

The Wealth of Nations

Genre

Economic literature

Language

English

Time

1776 1770s 18th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Smith, Adam. The Wealth of Nations. Vol. 1, London: W. Strahan and T. Cadell, 1776, bk. 1, ch. 11, pt. 2.

Current Citation

Smith, Adam. The Wealth of Nations, edited by Edwin Cannan. The Modern Library, bk. 1, ch. 11, pt. 2.

The opening up of new markets, foreign or domestic, and the organizational development from the craft shop and factory to such concerns as U.S. Steel illustrate the same process of industrial mutation...That incessantly revolutionizes the economic structure from within, incessantly destroying the old one, incessantly creating a new one. This process of Creative Destruction is the essential fact about capitalism.

Joseph Schumpeter

Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy

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Topic

Capitalism

Author

Joseph Schumpeter

Source

Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy

Genre

Economic literature Historical literature

Language

English

Time

1942 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Schumpeter, Joseph Alois. Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy. Harper & Brothers, 1942, pt. 2, ch. 7.

Markets can remain irrational a lot longer than you and I can remain solvent.

Gary Shilling

More information about this quote

Topic

Financial panics and publics Financial markets

Speaker

Gary Shilling

Language

English

Time

1986 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Shilling, Gary. Quoted in The Advertiser. 1986.

Laissez faire does not mean: Let soulless mechanical forces operate. It means: Let each individual choose how he wants to cooperate in the social division of labor; let the consumers determine what the entrepreneurs should produce. Planning means: Let the government alone choose and enforce its rulings by the apparatus of coercion and compulsion.

Ludwig von Mises

Human Action: A Treatise on Economics

More information about this quote

Topic

Free market Capitalism

Author

Ludwig von Mises

Source

Human Action: A Treatise on Economics

Genre

Economical literature Political literature

Language

English

Time

1949 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Von Mises, Ludwig. Human Action: A Treatise on Economics. Yale University Press, 1949, ch. 27.

All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership.

John Kenneth Galbraith

More information about this quote

Topic

Political leadership Leadership

Author

John Kenneth Galbraith

Source

The Age of Uncertainty

Genre

Economic literature

Language

English

Time

1977 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Galbraith, John Kenneth. The Age of Uncertainty. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1977, ch. 12.

In proportion as the antagonism between classes within the nation vanishes, the hostility of one nation to another will come to an end.

Karl Marx

The Communist Manifesto

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Topic

Class conflict End of war Political theory

Author

Karl Marx

Source

The Communist Manifesto

Medium

Pamphlet

Genre

Political literature Economic literature

Statement Type

Prophecies and predictions

Language

German

Time

1848 1840s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Marx, Karl and Friedrich Engels. Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei [Manifesto of the Communist Party]. London, 1848, pt. 2.

Current Citation

Marx, Karl and Friedrich Engels. The Communist Manifesto, translated by Samuel Moore and edited by Gareth Stedman Jones. Penguin Classics, 2015, pt. 2.