Sourced and curated.

The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.

The Communist Manifesto · 1848

★ 9.8

Pamphlet · Political literature · Economic literature

Political literature · Economic literature

The Communist Manifesto · 1848

★ 9.6

From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs!

The ruling ideas of each age have ever been the ideas of its ruling class.

1883

★ 9.3

Pamphlet · Political literature · Economic literature

A spectre is haunting Europe—the spectre of Communism.

The Communist Manifesto · 1848

★ 8.7

Pamphlet · Political literature · Economic literature

The Communist Manifesto · 1848

★ 8.2

Every individual necessarily labours to render the annual revenue of the society as great as he can. He generally, indeed, neither intends to promote the public interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it... he intends only his own security... and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention.

Economic literature · Philosophical literature

The Wealth of Nations · 1776

★ 7.2

Man naturally desires, not only to be loved, but to be lovely; or to be that thing which is the natural and proper object of love.

The Theory of Moral Sentiments · 1759

★ 7.1

But this long run is a misleading guide to current affairs. In the long run we are all dead.

John Maynard Keynes

1924

★ 6.9

With the greater part of rich people, the chief enjoyment of riches consists in the parade of riches; which, in their eye is never so complete as when they appear to possess those decisive marks of opulence which nobody can possess but themselves.

The Wealth of Nations · 1776

★ 5.5

In order to gain and to hold the esteem of men it is not sufficient merely to possess wealth or power. The wealth or power must be put in evidence, for esteem is awarded only on evidence.

Thorstein Veblen

The Theory of the Leisure Class · 1899

★ 5.3

The opening up of new markets, foreign or domestic, and the organizational development from the craft shop and factory to such concerns as U.S. Steel illustrate the same process of industrial mutation...That incessantly revolutionizes the economic structure from within, incessantly destroying the old one, incessantly creating a new one. This process of Creative Destruction is the essential fact about capitalism.

Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy · 1942

★ 5.2

All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership.

John Kenneth Galbraith

1977

★ 5.1

Pamphlet · Political literature · Economic literature

In proportion as the antagonism between classes within the nation vanishes, the hostility of one nation to another will come to an end.

The Communist Manifesto · 1848

★ 4.8

It will be convenient to have a name for the ideas which are esteemed at any time for their acceptability, and it should be a term that emphasizes this predictability. I shall refer to these ideas henceforth as the conventional wisdom.

John Kenneth Galbraith

The Affluent Society · 1958

★ 4.4

Pamphlet · Political literature · Economic literature

The theory of the Communists may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property.

The Communist Manifesto · 1848

★ 4.0

Science is the great antidote to the poison of enthusiasm and superstition.

The Wealth of Nations · 1776

★ 3.9

There is no art which one government sooner learns of another, than that of draining money from the pockets of the people.

All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, and man is at last compelled to face with sober senses his real conditions of life, and his relations with his kind.

The Wealth of Nations · 1776

★ 3.9

Pamphlet · Political literature · Economic literature

The Communist Manifesto · 1848

★ 3.9

All systems, either of preference or of restraint, therefore, being thus completely taken away, the obvious and simple system of natural liberty establishes itself of its own accord. Every man, as long as he does not violate the laws of justice, is left perfectly free to pursue his own interest his own way, and to bring both his industry and capital into competition with those of any other man, or order of men.

The Wealth of Nations · 1776

★ 3.8

People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices.

There is no way of keeping profits up but by keeping wages down.

The Wealth of Nations · 1776

★ 3.8

Essay · Economic literature

David Ricardo

1822

★ 3.7

Conspicuous consumption of valuable goods is a means of reputability to the gentleman of leisure.

Thorstein Veblen

1899

★ 3.7

Economic progress, in capitalist society, means turmoil.

Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy · 1942

★ 3.7

Population, when unchecked, increases in a geometrical ratio. Subsistence only increases in an arithmetical ratio.

Thomas Robert Malthus

1798

★ 3.6

Wealth is not without its advantages and the case to the contrary, although it has often been made, has never proved widely persuasive.

John Kenneth Galbraith

The Affluent Society · 1958

★ 3.6

History suggests only that capitalism is a necessary condition for political freedom. Clearly it is not a sufficient condition.

Milton Friedman

Capitalism and Freedom · 1962

★ 3.6

Political literature · Economic literature

No famine has ever taken place in the history of the world in a functioning democracy.

Amartya Sen

Development as Freedom · 1999

★ 3.6

The labour of women in the house, certainly enables men to produce more wealth than they otherwise could; and in this way women are economic factors in society. But so are horses.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman

1898

★ 3.5

Essay · Economic literature

Marxian socialism must always remain a portent to the historians of opinion—how a doctrine so illogical and so dull can have exercised so powerful and enduring an influence over the minds of men and, through them, the events of history.

John Maynard Keynes

The End of Laissez-faire · 1926

★ 3.5

Marxism is a religion. To the believer it presents, first, a system of ultimate ends that embody the meaning of life and are absolute standards by which to judge events and actions; and, secondly, a guide to those ends which implies a plan of salvation and the indication of the evil from which mankind, or a chosen section of mankind, is to be saved.

The market economy as such does not respect political frontiers. Its field is the world.

Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy · 1942

★ 3.5

Treatise · Economic literature

Ludwig von Mises

1949

★ 3.5

Essay · Newspaper · Economic literature

Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.

Men enter local politics solely as a result of being unhappily married.

The Economist · 1955

★ 3.5

Essay · Newspaper · Economic literature

The Economist · 1958

★ 3.5

Expenditure rises to meet income.

Economic literature · Philosophical literature

1960

★ 3.5

In a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence.

Laurence J. Peter

1969

★ 3.5

One of the main effects…of orthodox traditional economics was…a plan for explaining to the privileged class that their position was morally right and was necessary for the welfare of society.

Joan Robinson

1937

★ 3.5

In one important sense, Marxism is a religion. To the believer it presents, first, a system of ultimate ends that embody the meaning of life and are absolute standards by which to judge events and actions; and, secondly, a guide to those ends which implies a plan of salvation and the indication of the evil from which mankind, or a chosen section of mankind, is to be saved.

The man who is denied the opportunity of taking decisions of importance begins to regard as important the decisions he is allowed to take.

1942

★ 3.5

Essay · Newspaper · Economic literature