Welcome to our collection of Economics Quotes, where the wisdom of renowned economists, thinkers, and leaders in the field is curated to inspire, enlighten, and provoke thought. Economics, often dubbed the dismal science, encompasses a vast array of theories, principles, and perspectives that shape our understanding of how societies allocate resources, make decisions, and navigate the complexities of the global market. From Adam Smith’s foundational ideas of the invisible hand to the modern complexities of behavioral economics, the realm of economics is rich with insights that resonate across disciplines and contexts.
As we delve into the world of economics through these quotes, we invite you to explore the diverse perspectives that have shaped economic thought throughout history. Whether you’re a seasoned economist, a student eager to learn, or simply curious about the forces that drive our economies, these quotes offer nuggets of wisdom, critique, and contemplation. So, without further ado, let’s embark on a journey through the words of visionaries and scholars who have illuminated the pathways of economic understanding.
I think economics – and this is what I’ve tried to impart – has a tremendous amount of human interest in it. Paul Samuelson
For many food poverty is the product of a toxic combination of low wages, austerity economics, spiralling food prices and lengthy delays to benefit payments, all of which should concern us. Luciana Berger
My background educationally is physics and economics, and I grew up in sort of an engineering environment – my father is an electromechanical engineer. And so there were lots of engineery things around me. Elon Musk
Bearing in mind most companies rely on the middle classes in developed countries to sell goods and services throughout the value chain, dealing with inequality is a matter of brutal enlightened self-interest. It’s simple economics: Global stability equals global growth equals profits. Richard Quest
The secret to the movie business, or any business, is to get a good education in a subject besides film – whether it’s history, psychology, economics, or architecture – so you have something to make a movie about. All the skill in the world isn’t going to help you unless you have something to say. George Lucas
Look at the declining television coverage. Look at the declining voting rate. Economics and economic news is what moves the country now, not politics. Robert Teeter
I never, never in my life took a course in economics. Lloyd Shapley
I believe that economics is based on scarcity of markets. And it’s possible to monetize your art without compromising the integrity of it for commerce. Nipsey Hussle
Since scarcity is the basic economic problem, if it does not exist then there is no reason for my economics course. Devoting time to the study of how people use limited resources to fulfill unlimited wants and needs should help us to discover how to best utilize the resources we have at our disposal. Kurt Bills
Economists treat economics as if it is a pure science divorced from the facts of life. The result of this false accountancy is a willful confusion under cover of which industry wreaks its havoc scot-free and ignores the environmental cost. Vivienne Westwood
The first lesson of economics is scarcity: there is never enough of anything to fully satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics. Thomas Sowell
The idea that we’re going to austerity ourselves into prosperity is so mistaken, and honestly, I feel like one of the big problems we have is that, because Democrats don’t have a deep understanding of or degrees in economics, they allow Wall Street folks to roll in the door and think that they’re giving them an education. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
If you have a traditional view of economics, you’re probably thinking of Ben Bernanke making Fed policy, or the guys creating financial derivatives at Goldman Sachs. Emily Oster
The astounding variety of foods on offer in the modern supermarket obscures the fact that the actual number of species in the modern diet is shrinking. For reasons of economics, the food industry prefers to tease its myriad processed offerings from a tiny group of plant species, corn and soybeans chief among them. Michael Pollan
War used to be something you could stand on the nearby hill and watch. Now we have total war; everybody’s in it. We have total economics as well. Everything affects everybody. The Malaysian currency shakes, and people around the world are seriously affected. Salman Rushdie
The Nobel Prize in Economics is an incredible recognition for the work that my students, colleagues and I have done over the years. We all worked hard, but we were also lucky that the financial applications were so important. Robert F. Engle
Human well-being is not a random phenomenon. It depends on many factors – ranging from genetics and neurobiology to sociology and economics. But, clearly, there are scientific truths to be known about how we can flourish in this world. Wherever we can have an impact on the well-being of others, questions of morality apply. Sam Harris
Survival, in the cool economics of biology, means simply the persistence of one’s own genes in the generations to follow. Lewis Thomas
Economics runs the world. Machine Gun Kelly
I love the gallery, the arena of representation. It’s a commercial world, and morality is based generally around economics, and that’s taking place in the art gallery. Jeff Koons
Bitcoin represents the first major breakthrough in economics and finance since double-entry bookkeeping was invented in 1494, and activists need to embrace its power. Max Keiser
And I know this happens because I took economics, and I’d explain it to ya, but I flunked that course. Not my fault. They taught it at 8 o’clock in the morning. And there is absolutely nothing you can learn out of one bloodshot eye. Lewis Black
A study of economics usually reveals that the best time to buy anything is last year. Marty Allen
To a person of analytical ability, perceptive enough to realise that mathematical equipment was a powerful sword in economics, the world of economics was his or her oyster in 1935. The terrain was strewn with beautiful theorems begging to be picked up and arranged in unified order. Paul Samuelson
My research career has been devoted to understanding human decision-making and problem-solving processes. The pursuit of this goal has led me into the fields of political science, economics, cognitive psychology, computer science and philosophy of science, among others. Herbert A. Simon
It turns out that advancing equal opportunity and economic empowerment is both morally right and good economics, because discrimination, poverty and ignorance restrict growth, while investments in education, infrastructure and scientific and technological research increase it, creating more good jobs and new wealth for all of us. William J. Clinton
The completion of my undergraduate training at the University of California (Berkeley) provided just the needed touches of rigor at advanced levels in both economics and mathematics. Lawrence R. Klein
If, in our haste to ‘progress,’ the economics of ecology are disregarded by citizens and policy makers alike, the result will be an ugly America. We cannot afford an America where expedience tramples upon esthetics and development decisions are made with an eye only on the present. Stewart Udall
Even though I didn’t get a business degree, I enjoyed learning about economics. Herb Ritts
All the political angst and moral melodrama about getting ‘the rich’ to pay ‘their fair share’ is part of a big charade. This is not about economics, it is about politics. Thomas Sowell
Architecture is a technology. And it’s involved in all of the different networks of systems that produce architecture – including politics, economics, social and cultural conditions. So architecture is already in technology. Elizabeth Diller
I believe in pan-Africanism. This means that in many things – the judiciary, sports, economics and trade – we want Africanism to be involved, which is basically more freedom for the people. Fela Kuti
One of the things I’ve always liked about my husband is he’s very good at lots of stuff. He was an English teacher when I met him. He wrote poetry and played the guitar. As time went on, he decided to go into economics, so he’s very analytical and mathematical in addition to his artsy side. Ally Condie
The climate crisis is both the easiest and the hardest issue we have ever faced. The easiest because we know what we must do. We must stop the emissions of greenhouse gases. The hardest because our current economics are still totally dependent on burning fossil fuels, and thereby destroying ecosystems in order to create everlasting economic growth. Greta Thunburg
In economics, hope and faith coexist with great scientific pretension and also a deep desire for respectability. John Kenneth Galbraith
For thirty-five years, David Halberstam, an unsilent member of the Silent Generation, has contemplated America and its place in the world, casting his eye on big subjects – Vietnam, global economics, race, mass media, and the 1950s. John Gregory Dunne
Textbooks describe economics as the study of the allocation of scarce resources. That definition may be the ‘what,’ but it certainly is not the ‘why.’ Ben Bernanke
One of the most powerful insights in economics is this idea of a division of labor. You do the thing you’re good at. Other people do something else that they’re good at. The net effect is better for everybody. Paul Romer
Geography has made us neighbors. History has made us friends. Economics has made us partners, and necessity has made us allies. Those whom God has so joined together, let no man put asunder. John F. Kennedy
It is true that from a behavioral economics perspective we are fallible, easily confused, not that smart, and often irrational. We are more like Homer Simpson than Superman. So from this perspective it is rather depressing. But at the same time there is also a silver lining. There are free lunches! Dan Ariely
Economics is not an exact science. It’s a combination of an art and elements of science. And that’s almost the first and last lesson to be learned about economics: that in my judgment, we are not converging toward exactitude, but we’re improving our data bases and our ways of reasoning about them. Paul Samuelson
I can observe the game theory is applied very much in economics. Generally, it would be wise to get into the mathematics as much as seems reasonable because the economists who use more mathematics are somehow more respected than those who use less. That’s the trend. John Forbes Nash, Jr.
Economics is everywhere, and understanding economics can help you make better decisions and lead a happier life. Tyler Cowen
I was a business major in college, so I knew economics. Mike Holmgren
Assess Bitcoins? All you can do is examine the trading patterns, which do not provide a real analysis of any underlying economic value. The economics of investments are not solely based on supply and demand, and that is all that goes into Bitcoin prices. Kurt Eichenwald
The ultimate purpose of economics, of course, is to understand and promote the enhancement of well-being. Ben Bernanke
Design is a way of life, a point of view. It involves the whole complex of visual communications: talent, creative ability, manual skill, and technical knowledge. Aesthetics and economics, technology and psychology are intrinsically related to the process. Paul Rand
I think that the economics of book publishing favor hits with long book runs. You make all your money on the last bunch of books, not the first. Seth Godin
I learned a good deal about economics, and about America, from the author of the Reagan tax reforms – the great Jack Kemp. What gave Jack that incredible enthusiasm was his belief in the possibilities of free people, in the power of free enterprise and strong communities to overcome poverty and despair. We need that same optimism right now. Paul Ryan
A large part of crime is economics – if people are working and and have a home and family to support, then I believe you can reduce the crime rate. Vincent Frank
There’s a very good reason for why economics developed the way it did, and that is that in many situations, the assumption that people will exploit the opportunities available to them is very plausible, and it simplifies the analysis of how markets will behave. Daniel Kahneman
Classical economics values things by seeing how much someone will pay for them. But this is where classical economics is wrong. What it fails to account for are all the ‘externalities’ – the services people regard as free goods: pollination services, flood protection, climate regulation, soil stabilization, carbon sequestration. Barry Gardiner
The animals that depend on instinct have an inherent knowledge of the laws of economics and of how to apply them; Man, with his powers of reason, has reduced economics to the level of a farce which is at once funnier and more tragic than Tobacco Road. James Thurber
Economics is extremely useful as a form of employment for economists. John Kenneth Galbraith
Because economics is all about optimising, doing the best you can with what you have – it’s usually the first place you should look for answers if you want to maximise your happiness. Emily Oster
Recommending gastric bypass as a national solution for our diabetes epidemic is bad medicine and bad economics. Mark Hyman
And religion causes most of the problems, war, and economics of course, and study your history or you’re going to repeat it; and if you’re burning a Harry Potter book you need some serious counseling, you don’t get it, you’re missing the whole point. Michael Berryman
Contrary to what professional economists will typically tell you, economics is not a science. All economic theories have underlying political and ethical assumptions, which make it impossible to prove them right or wrong in the way we can with theories in physics or chemistry. Ha-Joon Chang
In economics, one of the most important concepts is ‘opportunity cost’ – the idea that once you spend your money on something, you can’t spend it again on something else. Malcolm Turnbull
Economics make homeopath and alternative healers look empirical and scientific. Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Where there is politics or economics, there is no morality. Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel
But while I loved all of these courses, there was an irresistible attraction of economics. Joseph Stiglitz
Traditional economics is based on imaginary creatures sometimes referred to as ‘Homo economicus.’ I call them Econs for short. Econs are amazingly smart and are free of emotion, distraction or self-control problems. Think Mr. Spock from ‘Star Trek.’ Richard Thaler
Economics is about creating win-win situations. But in sports, someone loses. Stan Kroenke
We would, however, perform an injustice to the bourgeois women’s rights movement if we would regard it as solely motivated by economics. No, this movement also contains a more profound spiritual and moral aspect. Clara Zetkin
I call crony capitalism, where you take money from successful small businesses, spend it in Washington on favored industries, on favored individuals, picking winners and losers in the economy, that’s not pro-growth economics. That’s not entrepreneurial economics. That’s not helping small businesses. That’s cronyism, that’s corporate welfare. Paul Ryan
Religion and art spring from the same root and are close kin. Economics and art are strangers. Nathaniel Hawthorne
My fellow economists and academics fail to understand the economics of trade in the real world. Traditional models of academia respect free trade without considering whether it is fair trade. Peter Navarro
Too many people think that economics is this subject that should wait until the university level. But it can’t wait that long. Robert Duvall
We need to revise our economic thinking to give full value to our natural resources. This revised economics will stabilize both the theory and the practice of free-market capitalism. It will provide business and public policy with a powerful new tool for economic development, profitability, and the promotion of the public good. Paul Hawken
When I was doing my bachelors from Delhi University, India experienced its first major external financing and currency crisis in 1990-91. This inspired me to pursue graduate work in economics and was the foundation for my interest in international finance. Gita Gopinath
Since the global financial crisis and recession of 2007-2009, criticism of the economics profession has intensified. The failure of all but a few professional economists to forecast the episode – the aftereffects of which still linger – has led many to question whether the economics profession contributes anything significant to society. Robert J. Shiller
President Reagan, Jack Kemp and other advocates of supply-side economics understood that pro-growth tax, spending and economic policies were essential to America’s long-term economic and fiscal health. Bob Beauprez
The most important question in 21st-century economics may well be, ‘What should we do with all the superfluous people, once we have highly intelligent non-conscious algorithms that can do almost everything better than humans?’ Yuval Noah Harari
I helped Ronald Reagan and Jack Kemp develop supply-side economics. Newt Gingrich
The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design. Friedrich August von Hayek
Europe is difficult to coordinate, and our main deficit may not even lie in this area of finance and economics, but in foreign and security policy. We have a leadership problem because we are still 27 different members who have still not decided on how to work with each other based on what we used to call a European constitution. Peer Steinbruck
A lot of times, my work is looked at very much on the surface. It’s very easy to just want to put something in a box – to say, ‘Oh, since this work deals with surface desires at times, this is about consumerism.’ And of course, the base of the work is… not about economics at all. Jeff Koons
When a management with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for bad economics, it is the reputation of the business that remains intact. Warren Buffett
The art of economics consists in looking not merely at the immediate but at the longer effects of any act or policy; it consists in tracing the consequences of that policy not merely for one group but for all groups. Henry Hazlitt
Start with the idea that you can’t repeal the laws of economics. Even if they are inconvenient. Lawrence Summers
After my 12th, my parents moved to Bangalore while I moved to Mumbai to study Economics at Sophia College. Much unlike other girls who managed to evade the curfew and organised the slips to get out of college, we would attend college and were interested in academics. Kiran Rao
Born Virginia Marshall but nicknamed Gig, my mother was a home economics teacher who had come all the way across the whole state of Virginia, from her home on the Eastern Shore to our little Appalachian coal town to marry my daddy, Ernest Smith, whose family had lived in these mountains for generations. Lee Smith
Many individuals are doing what they can. But real success can only come if there is a change in our societies and in our economics and in our politics. David Attenborough
I studied politics and economics at Bristol, and people always assumed that I’d go into politics or a non-government organisation when I left. I might well do this later on. I’d love to represent a West Country seat in the House of Commons. Ben Elliot
We can’t do the same things the Yankees do. Given the economics, we’ll lose. Billy Beane
Economics profession, they’ve been – they’ve been confident in various formulas, but economics is not physics. The same formula that works in one decade doesn’t work in the next. Economics is a difficult subject. Charlie Munger
The notion of humans as inherently rational beings has been not only trashed in economics, but trashed in all the best research on moral decision-making. Robert Sapolsky
Economics is uncertain because its fundamental subject matter is not money but human action. That’s why economics is not the dismal science, it’s no science at all. Julian Baggini
You alleviate poverty by trickle-down economics. Jacob Rees-Mogg
When I left university I got a job with Shell on their graduate scheme. One of my roles was as a commercial manager for liquid natural gas shipping, project economics and contract negotiation. Liz Truss
I’ve always loved doing research. I remember doing a research project on the Babylonian numeral system in the eighth grade and thinking, ‘This is pretty awesome – is this really a job you can have?’ This led me toward a career as an academic, although it took me until college to realise that economics was the right field. Emily Oster
Economics is a subject that does not greatly respect one’s wishes. Nikita Khrushchev
In my book, ‘The Big Three in Economics,’ I found that the press has frequently and prematurely written the obituary of Adam Smith and his free-market philosophy, only to see a new and more vibrant global marketplace reemerge after being savagely attacked by Keynesians, Marxists, and assorted socialists. Mark Skousen
Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results when, in fact, the results never change, is one definition of insanity. That goes for economics, too. Lawrence Kudlow
Why should we, however, in economics, have to plead ignorance of the sort of facts on which, in the case of a physical theory, a scientist would certainly be expected to give precise information? Friedrich August von Hayek
We’ve switched from a culture that was interested in manufacturing, economics, politics – trying to play a serious part in the world – to a culture that’s really entertainment-based. Stephen King
If you think about the amount of critical thinking that has come into the field of economics, two universities have dominated the landscape in my life: Chicago and Harvard. Kenneth C. Griffin
Learn computer science. It’s extraordinarily helpful. I like recommending learning economics as well so they think in terms of business, they have rational frameworks for looking at the world, but yeah, computer science is an amazing way to get into, even if you want to be CEO, having a tech background is helpful. Fabrice Grinda
History shows that where ethics and economics come in conflict, victory is always with economics. Vested interests have never been known to have willingly divested themselves unless there was sufficient force to compel them. B. R. Ambedkar
