The happiest time of anyone's life is just after the first divorce.

The shortcomings of economics are not original error but uncorrected obsolescence. The obsolescence has occurred because what is convenient has become sacrosanct. Anyone who attacks such ideas must seem to be a trifle self-confident and even aggressive. The man who makes his entry by leaning against an infirm door gets an unjustified reputation for violence. Something is to be attributed to the poor state of the door.

The problem of the modern economy is not a failure of a knowledge of economics; it's a failure of a knowledge of history.

We talk of the enormous virtues of work, but it turns out that that is mostly for the poor. If you're rich enough or if you're a college professor, the virtue lies in leisure and the use you make of your leisure time.

One of the greatest pieces of economic wisdom is to know what you do not know.

Washington is a place where men praise courage and act on elaborate personal cost-benefit calculations.

The salary of the chief executive of a large corporation is not a market award for achievement. It is frequently in the nature of a warm personal gesture by the individual to himself.