The raw fact is that every successful example of economic development this past century – every case of a poor nation that worked its way up to a more or less decent, or at least dramatically better, standard of living – has taken place via globalization, that is, by producing for the world market rather than trying for self-sufficiency. – Paul Krugman

The passion for office among members of Congress is very great, if not absolutely disreputable, and greatly embarrasses the operations of the government. They create offices by their own votes and then seek to fill them themselves. – James K. Polk

Whatever you tax, you get less of. – Alan Greenspan

A young man who isn't a socialist hasn't got a heart; an old man who is a socialist hasn't got a head - Georges Clemenceau

Most poor people earn more than minimum wage when they are working; their problem is not low wages. The problem comes when they are not working. – Joseph E. Stiglitz

Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other. – Ronald Reagan

The lack of money is the root of all evil. - Mark Twain

One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results. – Milton Friedman

The economy is like a supertanker, ... It doesn't move on a dime. Policy can nudge it, but it takes a while before it starts moving and moving substantially. – Gregory Mankiw

The most successful supporters of tyranny are without doubt those general declaimers who attribute the distresses of the poor, and almost all evils to which society is subject, to human institutions and the iniquity of governments. – Thomas Malthus

Either you believe in markets or you believe in government. – Lawrence Kudlow

The difficulty lies, not in the new ideas, but in escaping from the old ones, which ramify, for those brought up as most of us have been, into every corner of our minds. – John Maynard Keynes

1) Use mathematics as shorthand language, rather than as an engine of inquiry. 2) Keep to them till you have done. 3) Translate into English. 4) Then illustrate by examples that are important in real life 5) Burn the mathematics. 6) If you can’t succeed in 4, burn 3. – Alfred Marshall

No country can squander itself to prosperity on the ruin of its taxpayers. – Herbert Hoover

Morality, it could be argued, represents the way people would like the world to work - whereas economics represents how it actually does work. – Dubner & Levitt

If a workman can conveniently spare those three halfpence, he buys a pot of porter. If he cannot, he contents himself with a pint, and, as a penny saved is a penny got, he thus gains a farthing by his temperance. – Adam Smith

Did you ever think that making a speech on economics is a lot like pissing down your leg? It seems hot to you, but it never does to anyone else – Lyndon B. Johnson

You have instructed many, and have strengthened weak hands. Your words have uplifted the fallen, and have strengthened feeble knees. But now you are troubled. What has become of your confidence? – JOB 4:3-6