Alfred Marshall Quotes

• The most valuable of all capital is that invested in human beings

  Alfred Marshall

  Money, People, Investing

  Alfred Marshall (2009). “Principles of Economics: Unabridged Eighth Edition”, p.469, Cosimo, Inc.

  74 Copy quote

• Knowledge is our most powerful engine of production.

  Alfred Marshall

  Powerful, Most Powerful, Engines

  Alfred Marshall (2009). “Principles of Economics: Unabridged Eighth Edition”, p.115, Cosimo, Inc.

  48 Copy quote

• Political Economy or Economics is a study of mankind in the ordinary business of life.

  Alfred Marshall

  Political, Ordinary, Study

  Principles of Economics bk. 1, ch. 1 (1890)

  55 Copy quote

• Capital is that part of wealth which is devoted to obtaining further wealth.

  Alfred Marshall

  Philosophy, Political, Wealth

  Alfred Marshall, Mary Paley Marshall (1888). “The Economics of Industry”

  52 Copy quote

• We might as well reasonably dispute whether it is the upper or the under blade of a pair of scissors that cuts a piece of paper, as whether value is governed by demand or supply.

  Alfred Marshall

  Cutting, Pieces, Paper

  Alfred Marshall (2009). “Principles of Economics: Unabridged Eighth Edition”, p.290, Cosimo, Inc.

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• In common use almost every word has many shades of meaning, and therefore needs to be interpreted by the context.

  Alfred Marshall

  Needs, Use, Shade

  Alfred Marshall (1977). “Principles of Economics: An Introductory Volume”

  48 Copy quote

• Every short statement about economics is misleading (with the possible exception of my present one).

  Alfred Marshall

  Education, Economics, Exception

  23 Copy quote

• The most reckless and treacherous of all theorists is he who professes to let facts and figures speak for themselves.

  Alfred Marshall

  Facts, Speak, Reckless

  Alfred Marshall (1956). “Selected Works of Alfred Marshall for a Memorial Collection for Professor Ralph L. Dewey, 1901-1959: Memorials of Alfred Marshall”

  26 Copy quote

• The love for money is only one among many.

  Alfred Marshall

  Money

  19 Copy quote

• All wealth consists of desirable things; that is, things which satisfy human wants directly or indirectly: but not all desirable things are reckoned as wealth.

  Alfred Marshall

  Want, Wealth, Humans

  Alfred Marshall (2009). “Principles of Economics: Unabridged Eighth Edition”, p.45, Cosimo, Inc.

  18 Copy quote

• Consumption may be regarded as negative production.

  Alfred Marshall

  Negative, May, Consumption

  Alfred Marshall (2010). “Principles of Economics”, p.64, Cosimo, Inc.

  20 Copy quote

• Civilized countries generally adopt gold or silver or both as money.

  Alfred Marshall

  Country, Money, Gold

  Alfred Marshall (2009). “Principles of Economics: Unabridged Eighth Edition”, p.51, Cosimo, Inc.

  41 Copy quote

• Nature's action is complex: and nothing is gained in the long run by pretending that it is simple, and trying to describe it in a series of elementary propositions.

  Alfred Marshall

  Running, Simple, Long

  Alfred Marshall (2009). “Principles of Economics: Unabridged Eighth Edition”, p.8, Cosimo, Inc.

  24 Copy quote

• The price of every thing rises and falls from time to time and place to place; and with every such change the purchasing power of money changes so far as that thing goes.

  Alfred Marshall

  Fall, Finance, Purchasing Power

  Alfred Marshall (2009). “Principles of Economics: Unabridged Eighth Edition”, p.51, Cosimo, Inc.

  27 Copy quote

• I admit that these terms and the diagrams connected with them repel some readers, and fill others with the vain imagination that they have mastered difficult economics problems, when really they have done little more than learn the language in which parts of those problems can be expressed, and the machinery by which they can be handled. When the actual conditions of particular problems have not been studied, such knowledge is little better than a derrick for sinking oil-wells erected where there are no oil-bearing strata.

  Alfred Marshall

  Oil, Imagination, Done

  16 Copy quote

• All labour is directed towards producing some effect.

  Alfred Marshall

  Effects, Labour

  Alfred Marshall (2010). “Principles of Economics”, p.65, Cosimo, Inc.

  7 Copy quote

• It is common to distinguish necessaries, comforts, and luxuries; the first class including all things required to meet wants which must be satisfied, while the latter consist of things that meet wants of a less urgent character.

  Alfred Marshall

  Character, Class, Luxury

  Alfred Marshall (1997). “Principles of Economics”

  16 Copy quote

• The commercial storm leaves its path strewn with ruin. When it is over there is calm, but a dull, heavy calm.

  Alfred Marshall

  Storm, Dull, Ruins

  Alfred Marshall, Mary Paley Marshall (1888). “The Economics of Industry”

  11 Copy quote

• But if inventions have increased man's power over nature very much, then the real value of money is better measured for some purposes in labour than in commodities.

  Alfred Marshall

  Real, Men, Purpose

  Alfred Marshall (2010). “Principles of Economics”, p.62, Cosimo, Inc.

  7 Copy quote

• The hope that poverty and ignorance may gradually be extinguished derives indeed much support from the steady progress of the working classes during the 19th century.

  Alfred Marshall

  Philosophy, Ignorance, Class

  Alfred Marshall (1977). “Principles of Economics: An Introductory Volume”

  7 Copy quote

• Slavery was regarded by Aristotle as an ordinance of nature, and so probably was it by the slaves themselves in olden time.

  Alfred Marshall

  Slavery, Slave, Ordinances

  Alfred Marshall (2010). “Principles of Economics”, p.3, Cosimo, Inc.

  13 Copy quote

• Producer's Surplus is a convenient name for the genus of which the rent of land is the leading species.

  Alfred Marshall

  Land, Names, Producers

  Alfred Marshall, Peter Groenewegen (1997). “Collected works”

  10 Copy quote

• Again, most of the chief distinctions marked by economic terms are differences not of kind but of degree.

  Alfred Marshall

  Differences, Degrees, Kind

  Alfred Marshall (1895). “Principles of Economics”

  8 Copy quote

• Material goods consist of useful material things, and of all rights to hold, or use, or derive benefits from material things, or to receive them at a future time.

  Alfred Marshall

  Rights, Benefits, Use

  Alfred Marshall (2010). “Principles of Economics”, p.54, Cosimo, Inc.

  8 Copy quote

• Individual and national rights to wealth rest on the basis of civil and international law, or at least of custom that has the force of law.

  Alfred Marshall

  Law, Rights, Wealth

  Alfred Marshall (1890). “Principles of Economics”

  5 Copy quote

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