Markets economize on the need for virtue, but do not eliminate it.

Vernon Smith (2008). Rationality in Economics: Constructivist and Ecological Forms, p 21

Economists’ proclivity to look at outcomes rather than at the rules that generate such outcomes has been a source of profound confusion. Reform of results or outcomes comes about through reform of the rules rather than through manipulation of the outcomes directly.

Geoffrey Brennan & James Buchanan (1986). The Reason of Rules: Constitutional Political Economy, p 16-17

The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design.

F.A. Hayek (1988). The Fatal Conceit : The Errors of Socialism, p. 76

The notion that our rationalistic and capitalistic age is characterized by a stronger economic interest than other periods is childish.

Max Weber (1923). General Economic History, p 355

You cannot compare a macroeconomist to a pilot. There are two classes of experts. Belly dancers are experts at belly dancing. The people who steal radios from cars are experts at stealing radios from cars. Dentists are experts at dentistry. I’m not sure macroeconomists know anything about anything. Because there’s no feedback, so we don’t know. Maybe they know. Policymakers or people in the State Department, I’m not sure they know anything because there’s no feedback. We definitely know that a carpenter is an expert at carpentry, you see?

Nassim Nicholas Taleb (2020). Conversations with Tyler

The utility of science depends on its ability to distinguish between edible mushrooms and poisonous toadstools without eating them and awaiting the result.

Frank H. Knight (1935). The Ethics of Competition, p 72

It is not at all necessary to talk about what may be the greatest or most perfect picture in the world, to choose between two alternatives that we are facing. Nor is it sufficient, or indeed of any particular help, to know that the Mona Lisa is the most perfect picture in the world when the choice is actually between a Dali and a Picasso.

Amartya Sen, The Idea of Justice (2009), p 16

Human history teaches us that economic growth springs from better recipes, not just from more cooking. New recipes produce fewer unpleasant side effects and generate more economic value per unit of raw material.

Paul Romer (s.d.). Economic growth

We need now a “pro-growth” agenda. When you’re out of recession and financial crisis, further growth comes from “supply.” And there is plenty to work on there. Alas, supply requires a Marie Kondoing of our public life, not a grand new initiative. Fix all the little things, zoning, agricultural policy, tax reform, reducing disincentives of social programs, continued regulatory reform, cutting tariffs, occupational licensing, and on and on. Macroeconomists (and growth economists) should be focusing on microeconomics.

John Cochrane (2019). Secular stagnation blogpost

The Capitalist Man in his worst moments is greedy. Ans so are you and I. And so, I note, is Socialist Man, in more than his worst moments. If capitalism is to be blamed for systemic evils, then it is also to be given credit for systemic goods, compared not with an imaginary ideal but with actually existing alternatives.

Deirde McCloskey (2006). The Bourgeois Virtues. Ethics for an Age of Commerce, p 29

The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed, the world is ruled by little else. Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually slaves of some defunct economist. Madmen in authority, who hear voices in the air, are distilling their frenzy from some academic scribbler of a few years back. I am sure that the power of vested interests is vastly exaggerated compared with the gradual encroachment of ideas.

John Maynard Keynes (1936). General Theory, p 383-384

Out of ferocity, avarice, and ambition, the three vices which lead all mankind astray, society makes national defense, commerce, and politics, and thereby causes the strength, the wealth, and the wisdom of the republics; out of these three great vices which would certainly destroy man on earth, society thus causes the civil happiness to emerge.

Giambattista Vico (1725). Geciteerd in Albert Hirschman (1977). The Passions and the Interests. Political Arguments for Capitalism before its Triumph, p 17

Klasseer onder andere onzichtbare-hand-formuleringen.

Commerce is the name for free, mutual, and voluntary exchange among peoples. It is the normal activity by which interdependence is realized and the common good of all served. It is an activity typically more unifying than politics, nationalism, religion, or conquest. Its nature is social, as is its function, and as are the virtues it inculcates.

Michael Novak (1984). Geciteerd in Deirdre McCloskey (2006). Bourgeois Virtues, p 61

Strategy, like charity, begins at home. Specifically, economy is the best strategy. That is not to say that strategizing efforts to deter or defeat rivals with clever ploys and positioning are unimportant. In the long run, however, the best strategy is to organize and operate efficiently.

Oliver Williamson (1991). Strategizing, economizing, and economic organization. Strategic Management Journal, p 75

What really sets my heroes apart is the standards they held themselves to. They all worked forward from reality and backwards from perfection until the two met in the middle.

Isusr, Less Wrong