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

All successful revolutions are the kicking in of a rotten door.

There is little that can be said about most economic goods. A toothbrush does little but clean teeth. Aspirin does little but dull pain. Alcohol is important mostly for making people more or less drunk ... There being so little to be said, much is to be invented.

Monetary policy suffers from the unfortunate absence of any occult effect. It has long been clear that economic management...would be greatly facilitated if resort could occasionally be had to witchcraft.

Good writing, and this is especially important in a subject such as economics, must also involve the reader in the matter at hand. It is not enough to explain. The images that are in the mind of the writer must be made to reappear in the mind of the reader, and it is the absence of this ability that causes much economic writing to be condemned, quite properly, as abstract.

Where humor is concerned there are no standards - no one can say what is good or bad, although you can be sure that everyone will.

The greater the wealth the thicker will be the dirt.