John Maynard Keynes (Economist)

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.Chapter II, Section I, pp. 14-15

— John Maynard Keynes history

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.Chapter II, Section I, p. 15

— John Maynard Keynes art

The immense accumulations of fixed capital which, to the great benefit of mankind, were built up during the half century before the war, could never have come about in a Society where wealth was divided equitably.Chapter II, Section III, p. 19

— John Maynard Keynes war

The duty of saving became nine-tenths of virtue and the growth of the cake the object of true religion.Chapter II, Section III, p. 20

— John Maynard Keynes religion

Perhaps a day might come when there would be at last be enough to go round, and when posterity could enter into the enjoyment of our labors.Chapter II, Section III, p. 21

— John Maynard Keynes joy

He had one illusion — France; and one disillusion — mankind, including Frenchmen, and his colleagues not least.On Georges Clemenceau, in Chapter III, p. 32

— John Maynard Keynes men

The glory of the nation you love is a desirable end, — but generally to be obtained at your neighbors expense.Chapter III, p. 33

— John Maynard Keynes love

To see the British Prime Minister watching the company, with six or seven senses not available to ordinary men, judging character, motive, and subconscious impulse, perceiving what each was thinking and even what each was going to say next, and compounding with telepathic instinct the argument or appeal best suited to the vanity, weakness, or self-interest of his immediate auditor, was to realize that the poor President would be playing blind mans bluff in that party.On David Lloyd George and Woodrow Wilson, in Chapter III, p. 41

— John Maynard Keynes art

The future life of Europe was not their concern; its means of livelihood was not their anxiety. Their preoccupations, good and bad alike, related to frontiers and nationalities, to the balance of power, to imperial aggrandizements, to the future enfeeblement of a strong and dangerous enemy, to revenge, and to the shifting by the victors of their unbearable financial burdens on to the shoulders of the defeated.Chapter IV, p. 56

— John Maynard Keynes life

The division of the spoils between the victors will also provide employment for a powerful office, whose doorsteps the greedy adventurers and jealous concession hunters of twenty or thirty nations will crowd and defile.Chapter IV, Section I, p. 77

— John Maynard Keynes power

But the dreams of designing diplomats do not always prosper, and we must trust the future.Chapter IV, Section III, p. 105

— John Maynard Keynes dreams

Perhaps it is historically true that no order of society ever perishes save by its own hand.Chapter VI, p. 238

— John Maynard Keynes society

Economic privation proceeds by easy stages, and so long as men suffer it patiently the outside world cares little.Chapter VI, p. 250

— John Maynard Keynes men

If we aim deliberately at the impoverishment of Central Europe, vengeance, I dare predict, will not limp.Chapter VII, Section 1, p. 268

— John Maynard Keynes men

Leninism is a combination of two things which Europeans have kept for some centuries in different compartments of the soul — religion and business. We are shocked because the religion is new, and contemptuous because the business, being subordinated to the religion instead of the other way round, is highly inefficient.

— John Maynard Keynes religion

Comfort and habits let us be ready to forgo, but I am not ready for a creed which does not care how much it destroys the liberty and security of daily life, which uses deliberately the weapons of persecution, destruction and international strife. How can I admire a policy which finds a characteristic expression in spending millions to suborn spies in every family and group at home, and to stir up trouble abroad?

— John Maynard Keynes life

How can I adopt a creed which, preferring the mud to the fish, exalts the boorish proletariat above the bourgeois and the intelligentsia who, with whatever faults, are the quality in life and surely carry the seeds of all human advancement?

— John Maynard Keynes life

I can be influenced by what seems to me to be justice and good sense; but the class war will find me on the side of the educated bourgeoisie.

— John Maynard Keynes war

A study of the history of opinion is a necessary preliminary to the emancipation of the mind.Ch. 1

— John Maynard Keynes history

I do not know which makes a man more conservative — to know nothing but the present, or nothing but the past.Ch. 1

— John Maynard Keynes past

The phrase laissez-faire is not to be found in the works of Adam Smith, of Ricardo, or of Malthus. Even the idea is not present in a dogmatic form in any of these authors. Adam Smith, of course, was a Free Trader and an opponent of many eighteenth-century restrictions on trade. But his attitude towards the Navigation Acts and the usury laws shows that he was not dogmatic. Even his famous passage about the invisible hand reflects the philosophy which we associate with Paley rather than the economic dogma of laissez-faire.Ch. 2

— John Maynard Keynes philosophy

Marxian Socialism must always remain a portent to the historians of Opinion — how a doctrine so illogical and so dull can have exercised so powerful and enduring an influence over the minds of men, and, through them, the events of history.Ch. 3

— John Maynard Keynes history

For my part I think that capitalism, wisely managed, can probably be made more efficient for attaining economic ends than any alternative system yet in sight, but that in itself it is in many ways extremely objectionable.Ch. 5

— John Maynard Keynes art

This is a nightmare, which will pass away with the morning. For the resources of nature and mens devices are just as fertile and productive as they were. The rate of our progress towards solving the material problems of life is not less rapid. We are as capable as before of affording for everyone a high standard of lifeand will soon learn to afford a standard higher still. We were not previously deceived. But to-day we have involved ourselves in a colossal muddle, having blundered in the control of a delicate machine, the working of which we do not understand. The result is that our possibilities of wealth may run to waste for a time — perhaps for a long time.Referring to economics and the Great Depression

— John Maynard Keynes life

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 people

For many ages to come the old Adam will be so strong in us that everybody will need to do some work if he is to be contented. We shall do more things for ourselves than is usual with the rich to-day, only too glad to have small duties and tasks and routines. But beyond this, we shall endeavour to spread the bread thin on the butter-to make what work there is still to be done to be as widely shared as possible. Three-hour shifts or a fifteen-hour week may put off the problem for a great while. For three hours a day is quite enough to satisfy the old Adam in most of us!

— John Maynard Keynes work

If Mr. Lloyd George had no good qualities, no charms, no fascinations, he would not be dangerous. If he were not a syren, we need not fear the whirlpools.p. 35

— John Maynard Keynes fear

All the political parties alike have their origins in past ideas and not in new ideas — and none more conspicuously so than the Marxists.p. 91

— John Maynard Keynes art

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.p. 148

— John Maynard Keynes time

Jevons saw the kettle boil and cried out with the delighted voice of a child; Marshall too had seen the kettle boil and sat down silently to build an engine.p. 188

— John Maynard Keynes light

Economists must leave to Adam Smith alone the glory of the Quarto, must pluck the day, fling pamphlets into the wind, write always sub specie temporis, and achieve immortality by accident, if at all.p. 212

— John Maynard Keynes art

His peculiar gift was the power of holding continuously in his mind a purely mental problem until he had seen it through.On Isaac Newton

— John Maynard Keynes power

It is not easy for a free community to organise for war. We are not accustomed to listen to experts or prophets. Our strength lies in an ability to improvise. Yet an open mind to untried ideas is also necessary. No-one can say when the end will come. In the war services it is recognised that the best security for an early conclusion is a plan for long endurance.Ch. 1 : The Character of the Problem

— John Maynard Keynes war

Courage will be forthcoming if tile leaders of opinion in all parties will summon out of tile fatigue and confusion of war enough lucidity of mind to understand for themselves and to explain to tile public what is required; and then propose a plan conceived in a spirit of social justice, a plan which uses a time of general sacrifice, not as an excuse for postponing desirable reforms, but as an opportunity for moving further than we have moved hitherto towards reducing in equalities.Ch. 1 : The Character of the Problem

— John Maynard Keynes war

Nothing can be settled in isolation. Every use of our resources is at the expense of an alternative use.Ch. 1 : The Character of the Problem

— John Maynard Keynes character

It is extraordinarily difficult to secure the right outcome for this resultant of many separate policies. It depends on weighing one advantage against another. There is hardly a conceivable decision within the range of the supply services which does not affect it.Ch. 1 : The Character of the Problem

— John Maynard Keynes man

In peace time, that is to say, the size of the cake depends on the amount of work done. But in war time the size of the cake is fixed. If we work harder, we can fight better. But we must not consume more.Ch. 1 : The Character of the Problem

— John Maynard Keynes war

The general character of our solution must be, therefore, that it withdraws from expenditure a proportion of the increased earnings. This is the only way, apart from shortages of goods or higher prices, by which we can secure a balance between money to be spent and goods to be bought.Ch. 2 : The Character of the Solution

— John Maynard Keynes art

In order to calculate the size of the cake which will be left for civilian consumption, we have to estimate 1 the maximum current output that we are capable of organising from our resources of men and plant and materials, 2 how fast we can safely draw on our foreign reserves by importing more than we export, 3 how much of all this will be used up by our war effort.Ch. 3 : Our Output Capacity and the National Income

— John Maynard Keynes war

The nature of unemployment today is totally different from what it was a year ago. It is no longer caused by a deficiency of demand. There is no longer a potential surplus supply of the things we want. The transition to full employment is hindered by two obstacles. The first is due to the difficulty of shifting labour to the points where it is wanted. The second— and, for the time being, the chief—-obstacle is caused by the difficulties, other than the shortage of labour, in the way of existing demand becoming effective.Ch. 3 : Our Output Capacity and the National Income

— John Maynard Keynes time

I have now reached a stage in the argument where I have to choose between being too definite or being too vague. If I set forth a concrete proposal in all its particulars, I expose myself to a hundred criticisms on points not essential to the principle of the plan. If I go further in the use of figures for illustration, I am involved more and more in guess-work; and I run the risk of getting the reader bogged in details which may be inaccurate and could certainly be amended without injury to the main fabric. Yet if I restrict myself to generalities, I do not give the reader enough to bite on; and am in fact shirking the issue, since the size, the order of magnitude, of the factors involved is not an irrelevant detail.Ch. 5 : A Plan for Deferred Pay, Family, Allowances and a Cheap Ration

— John Maynard Keynes art

For each individual it is a great advantage to retain the rights over the fruits of his labour even though he must put off the enjoyment of them. His personal wealth is thus increased. For that is what wealth is,—command of the right to postponed consumption.Ch. 5 : A Plan for Deferred Pay, Family, Allowances and a Cheap Ration

— John Maynard Keynes family

For the Trade Unions such a scheme as this offers great and evident advantages compared with progressive inflation or with a wages tax. In spite of the demands of war, the workers would have secured the enjoyment, sooner or later, of a consumption fully commensurate with their increased effort; whilst family allowances and the cheap ration would actually improve, even during the war, the economic position of the poorer families. We should have succeeded in making the war an opportunity for a positive social improvement. How great a benefit in comparison with a futile attempt to evade a reasonable share of the burden of a just war, ending in a progressive inflation!Ch. 5 : A Plan for Deferred Pay, Family, Allowances and a Cheap Ration

— John Maynard Keynes war

The appropriate time for the ultimate release of the deposits will have arrived at the onset of the first post-war slump.Ch. 7 : The Release of Deferred Pay and a Capital Levy

— John Maynard Keynes war

The mechanism of reaching equilibrium by means of a rising cost of living, which is vainly pursued by a rising level of wages, will be described in the next chapter. But it is admitted on all hands that this is the worst possible solution.Ch. 8 : Rationing Price Control and Wage Control

— John Maynard Keynes living

No one embodied the Cambridge spirit of culture, fun, and public duty so much as Maynard Keynes. No one was more brilliant or charming. No economist in this century influenced politicians or the course of economics more.Todd G. Buchholz, Keynes: Bon Vivant as Savior in New Ideas from Dead Economists

— John Maynard Keynes culture

I can tell you — I was helping when Britain was trying to get a loan from the United States immediately after the war, and I was talking to one of Keyness assistants. And Keynes came in the room and walked over to us and the man I was talking to us said, This is Coase, who is helping us with the statistics. I dont think you know him. And Keynes said, No, I dont. And walked off. And thats my life with Keynes.Ronald Coase, in Coase on Externalities, the Firm, and the State of Economics

— John Maynard Keynes life

Keynes never sought to change the world out of any sense of personal dissatisfaction or discontent. Marx swore that the bourgeoisie would suffer for his poverty and his carbuncles. Keynes experienced neither poverty or boils. For him the world was excellent.John Kenneth Galbraith, The Age of Uncertainty, Chapter 7, p. 198

— John Maynard Keynes change

Although Keynes’s General Theory provides the foundation for much of our current understanding of economic fluctuations, it is important to remember that classical economics provides the right answers to many fundamental questions.N. Gregory Mankiw, preface in Macroeconomics

— John Maynard Keynes men

The consequences of Mr. Keyness attack upon orthodoxy are very far reaching. First, it cuts the ground from under the pretended justification of inequality, and allows us to see the monstrous absurdity of our social system with a fresh eye.Joan Robinson, An Essay on Marxian Economics, Chapter VIII, p. 67

— John Maynard Keynes absurd

There are still many people in America who regard depressions as acts of God. I think Keynes proved that the responsibility for these occurrences does not rest with Providence.Bertrand Russell, in Autobiography Ch. 3 : Cambridge, p. 69

— John Maynard Keynes god

Keyness intellect was the sharpest and clearest that I have ever known. When I argued with him, I felt that I took my life in my hands, and I seldom emerged without feeling something of a fool. I was sometimes inclined to feel that so much cleverness must be incompatible with depth, but I do not think that this feeling was justified.Bertrand Russell, in Autobiography Ch. 3 : Cambridge, p. 69

— John Maynard Keynes life

Keyness economic philosophy is thus made up of three interdependent parts: his technical macroeconomics, his embattled political philosophy and his ultimate ethical purpose.Introduction

— John Maynard Keynes philosophy

In ethics Keynes was a Platonist, in politics he was an Aristotelian. His ethics pointed him towards the ideal; his politics towards moderation.Ch. 7 : Keyness Politics

— John Maynard Keynes politics

Are the solutions offered us always to be too late? Shall we in Great Britain invite three-quarters of the world, including the whole of our Empire, to join with us in evolving a new currency system which shall be stable in terms of commodities? Or would the gold standard countries be interested to learn the terms, which must needs be strict, on which we should be prepared to re-enter the system of a drastically reformed gold standard?

— John Maynard Keynes art

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