According to the experience of all but the most accomplished jugglers, it is easier to keep one ball in the air than many.

The commencement speech is not, I think, a wholly satisfactory manifestation of our culture.

Few can believe that suffering, especially by others, is in vain. Anything that is disagreeable must surely have beneficial economic effects.

The real accomplishment of modern science and technology consists in taking ordinary men, informing them narrowly and deeply and then, through appropriate organization, arranging to have their knowledge combined with that of other specialized but equally ordinary men. This dispenses with the need for genius. The resulting performance, though less inspiring, is far more predictable.

It would be foolish to suggest that government is a good custodian of aesthetic goals. But, there is no alternative to the state.

The oldest problem in economic education is how to exclude the incompetent. A certain glib mastery of verbiage-the ability to speak portentously and sententiously about the relation of money supply to the price level-is easy for the unlearned and may even be aided by a mildly enfeebled intellect. The requirement that there be ability to master difficult models, including ones for which mathematical competence is required, is a highly useful screening device.

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