All great economists are tall. There are two exceptions: John Kenneth Galbraith and Milton Friedman. George Stigler More Quotes by George Stigler More Quotes From George Stigler ...it is distressing how often one can guess the answer given to an economic question merely by knowing who asks it. George Stigler economicsknowinganswers Theories are not rejected by cirsumstantial evidence: it takes a theory to beat a theory. George Stigler rejectedbeatstheory Competition is a tough weed, not a delicate flower. George Stigler competitionweedflower Why, when the economist gives advice to his society, is he so often cooly ignored? He never ceases to preach free trade, and protectionism is growing in the United States. He deplores the perverse effects of minimum wage laws, and the legal minimum is regularly raised each 3 or 5 years. He brands usury laws as a medieval superstition, but no state hurries to repeal its law. George Stigler lawphilosophyyears If you never miss a plane, you’re spending too much time at the airport. George Stigler airportstoo-muchmissing Friedman stumbled in, late to the seminar as usual and reeking of cigar smoke and whiskey. He hadn't read the paper being presented, and halfway through he just gets up, walks up to the podium, socks the mother****er right in the face and takes a piss all over his lecture notes. George Stigler lecturesmotherfaces There is only one social science and we are its practitioners George Stigler social-sciencesocial The Chicago Economics Department was in intellectual ferment, although the central issues of the 1930s were very different from those in later times. I had never before encountered minds of that quality at close quarters and they influenced me strongly. George Stigler issuesintellectualmind I recall my mother asking in about 1946 what I was and I replied proudly that I was a professor. A decade later she repeated her question and I repeated my answer. "No promotion?" was her comment. George Stigler askingmotheranswers A Swedish physicist can not discuss his work with fifty people unless he goes abroad. A Swedish economist can get opinions and instructions in his native language from thousands upon thousands of his fellow citizens. George Stigler native-languagecitizenspeople Adam Smith had one overwhelmingly important triumph: he put into the center of economics the systematic analysis of the behavior of individuals pursuing their self-interest under conditions of competition. George Stigler competitionimportantself The main insight learned from interdisciplinary studies is the return to specialization George Stigler returninsightstudy Mathematics has no symbols for confused ideas. George Stigler confusedscienceideas ...the number of saintly men has not yet risen to the level where the census makes them a separate statistical category. George Stigler levelsnumbersmen My interests were aroused, and my faith in the cliches of the subject destroyed, as so often with other subjects, by the discussions with my friend, Aaron Director. George Stigler fiercefaithdirectors Stigler's Law: No scientific discovery is named after its original discoverer. George Stigler scientific-discoverylawdiscovery In 1958, I came to Chicago where I have remained. George Stigler chicago Even before I came to Chicago, I had gotten interested in the existence of dispersion of prices under conditions which economic theory said would yield a single price. George Stigler economicyieldchicago It was in the 1960s that I began the detailed study of public regulation. George Stigler 1960sregulationstudy That subject has lost its one time appeal to economists as our science has become more abstract, but my interest has even grown more intense as the questions raised by the sociology of science became more prominent. George Stigler intensesociologyscience
