Quotes from John Maynard Keynes

Successful investing is anticipating the anticipations of others.

The decadent international but individualistic capitalism in the hands of which we found ourselves after the war is not a success. It is not intelligent. It is not beautiful. It is not just. It is not virtuous. And it doesn't deliver the goods.

Men will not always die quietly.

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

By this means (fractional reserve banking) government may secretly and unobserved, confiscate the wealth of the people, and not one man in a million will detect the theft.

The numeric system was invented to help man to put order in the chaos of the world.

What an extraordinary episode in the economic progress of man that age was which came to an end in August, 1914!

It is better that a man should tyrannize over his bank balance than over his fellow-citizens.

Markets can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent.

An investor who proposes to ignore near-term market fluctuations needs greater resources for safety and must not operate on so large a scale, if at all, with borrowed money.

Should government refrain from regulation (taxation), the worthlessness of the money becomes apparent and the fraud can no longer be concealed.

The love of money as a possession...will be recognised for what it is, a somewhat disgusting morbidity.

The idea behind stamped money is sound.

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.

If human nature felt no temptation to take a chance there might not be much investment merely as a result of cold calculation.

Morally and philosophically I find myself in agreement with virtually the whole of it: and not only in agreement with it, but in deeply moved agreement.

Logic , like lyrical poetry , is no employment for the middle-aged

Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone.

One blames politicians, not for inconsistency but for obstinacy. They are the interpreters, not the masters, of our fate. It is their job, in fact, to register the fact accompli.

God has arrived. I met him on the 5:15 train.

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.

Ideas shape the course of history.

The difficulty lies, not in the new ideas, but in escaping from the old ones.

Practical men who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist.