The importance of money flows from it being a link between the present and the future. John Maynard Keynes More Quotes by John Maynard Keynes More Quotes From John Maynard Keynes It is a mistake to think that one limits one’s risk by spreading too much between enterprises about which one knows little and has no reason for special confidence. John Maynard Keynes risk mistake thinking Speculators may do no harm as bubbles on a steady stream of enterprise. But the position is serious when enterprise becomes a bubble on a whirlpool of speculation. When the capital development of a country becomes a by-product of the activities of a casino, the job is likely to be ill done. John Maynard Keynes serious jobs country The love of money as a possession-as distinguished from the love of money as a means to the enjoyments and realities of life-will be recognized for what it is, a somewhat disgusting morbidity, one of those semi-criminal, semi-pathological propensities which one hands over with a shudder to the specialists in mental disease John Maynard Keynes life mean reality Conservatism leads nowhere; it satisfies no ideal. John Maynard Keynes ideals conservatism wise The destruction of the inducement to invest by an excessive liquidity-preference was the outstanding evil, the prime impediment to the growth of wealth, in the ancient and medieval worlds. John Maynard Keynes growth evil world Whenever you save five shillings you put a man out of work for a day. John Maynard Keynes laughter inspiration education If, however, a government refrains from regulations and allows matters to take their course, essential commodities soon attain a level of price out of the reach of all but the rich, the worthlessness of the money becomes apparent, and the fraud upon the public can be concealed no longer. John Maynard Keynes deception government money If the Treasury were to fill old bottles with bank-notes, bury them at suitable depths in disused coal-mines which are then filled up to the surface with town rubbish, and leave it to private enterprise on well-tried principles of laissez-faire to dig the notes up again (the right to do so being obtained, of course, by tendering for leases of the note-bearing territory), there need be no more unemployment and, with the help of repercussions, the real income of the community, and its capital wealth, would probably become a good deal greater than it actually is. John Maynard Keynes filled-up real digging-a-hole An investor who proposes to ignore near-term market fluctuations needs greater resources for safety and must not operate on so large a scale, if at all, with borrowed money. John Maynard Keynes resources safety needs Most men love money and security more, and creation and construction less, as they get older. John Maynard Keynes money love men It's not bringing in the new ideas that's so hard; it's getting rid of the old ones. John Maynard Keynes new-ideas hard ideas The engine which drives enterprise is not thrift, but profit. John Maynard Keynes thrift profit enterprise Newton was a judaic monotheist of the school of Maimonides John Maynard Keynes newton school ... a speculator is one who runs risks of which he is aware and an investor is one who runs risks of which he is unaware. John Maynard Keynes investing risk running Experience shows that what happens is always the thing against which one has not made provision in advance. John Maynard Keynes provision investing made The social object of skilled investment should be to defeat the dark forces of time and ignorance which envelope our future. John Maynard Keynes skills ignorance dark The classical theorists resemble Euclidean geometers in a non-Euclidean world who, discovering that in experience straight lines apparently parallel often meet, rebuke the lines for not keeping straight as the only remedy for the unfortunate collisions which are occurring. Yet, in truth, there is no remedy except to throw over the axiom of parallels and to work out a non-Euclidean geometry. John Maynard Keynes work-out lines world The considerations upon which expectations of prospective yields are based are partly existing facts which we can assume to be known more or less for certain, and partly future events which can only be forecasted with more or less confidence. John Maynard Keynes investing yield expectations The power to become habituated to his surroundings and therefore to no longer be grateful for what is good in it is a marked characteristic of mankind and needs to be fought against if a person is to be happy. John Maynard Keynes gratitude grateful needs The great events of history are often due to secular changes in the growth of population and other fundamental economic causes, which, escaping by their gradual character the notice of contemporary observers, are attributed to the follies of statesmen or the fanaticism of atheists . John Maynard Keynes escaping atheist character