When laissez-faire creates instability, the move to a freer market can be something less than pure gain.

But of course you can have your cake and eat it, too - if you decide to to bake a second cake. And you may well find that baking two cakes does not take twice the work of baking one.

The economic illusion is the belief that social justice is bad for economic growth.

As a scholarly discipline, economics has always suffered from physics envy.

In a world where technology and capital are highly transferable, there is a real risk that comparative advantage comes to be defined as whose labor force will work for the lowest wage.

If social security depresses savings rates, it is only because it is unfunded.

Henry Ford, in a sense, was the first Keynesian. He paid his assembly workers high wages so they could afford to buy his cars.

Not surprisingly, extensive effort in Britain and America goes into finding tax shelter. the system is "efficient" for the shelter industry, not for the economy.

It is more than a little ironic that "capital accumulation" once a rather tendentious Marxian view of a supposed capitalist obsession, should have become - of all things - Wall Street's own slogan.

In practice, a good deal of the outcomes produced by the market reflect nothing more than luck - good or bad.

What do you call an economist with a prediction? Wrong.

Without death, life would have no boundaries and our days would not be so precious. My mother was a firm believer in the common sense of nature.

The people knew what had made them human. It was not their shortcomings, but their hearts.

Never, never have a famous partner. It's too complicated.

I wish that I spoke more languages because I think each language is a window completely.

The most important word in the language of the working class is "solidarity."

You can't make war in the Middle East without Egypt and you can't make peace without Syria.

Renown? I've already got more of it than those I respect, and will never have as much as those for whom I feel contempt.

Mistakes - mistakes - you yourself are a unique mistake!

Monet, Manet, Sisley, Renoir, Van Gogh and others went outside to paint for one simple reason - it looks different outside.

A great deal more is known than has been proved.