Vested Interests Quotes

• It's not just politicians. Any spokesman for a vested interest is well schooled in how to say what it is they wish to say, which may bear no relation at all to what you've asked them.

  Jeremy Paxman

  Wish, May, Bears

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• Opinions have vested interests just as men have.

  Samuel Butler

  Men, Different Opinions, Interest

  Samuel Butler (1951). “Samuel Butler's notebooks”

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• Every historian has a vested interest. "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" was not about the Roman but the British empire. What price the truth?

  Peter Greenaway

  Fall, Empires, Decline

  "'You have naked bodies and genitalia, don't you? Why are you so adolescent?': Director Peter Greenaway on 'Puritan' Americans and the intense sex scenes in 'Eisenstein in Guanajuato'". Interview with Gary M. Kramer, www.salon.com. February 4, 2016.

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• Children are wise in a funny kind of way. They haven't developed so many vested interests of self. There is a wisdom, a lack of self-consciousness, that is innocence.

  Frederick Lenz

  Wise, Wisdom, Children

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• Today, scientists sound the alarm on other environmental dangers. Vested interests still hire their own scientists to confuse the issue. But in the end, nature, will not be fooled.

  Neil deGrasse Tyson

  Issues, Environmental, Alarms

  "Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey/ The Clean Room". Documentary, 2014.

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• Every restriction of trade creates vested interests that are from then on opposed to its removal.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Restriction, Interest, Trade

  Ludwig von Mises (2013). “The Theory of Money and Credit”, p.255, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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• A world of vested interests is not a world which welcomes the disruptive force of candor.

  Agnes Repplier

  Peace, Ubuntu, World

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• History shows that where ethics and economics come in conflict, victory is always with economics.

  B. R. Ambedkar

  Life, Home Economics, Victory

  "Political Science for Civil Services Main Examination". Book by N.D. Arora, 2010.

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• The vested interests-if we explain the situation by their influence-can only get the public to act as they wish by manipulating public opinion, by playing either upon the public's indifference, confusions, prejudices, pugnacities or fears. And the only way in which the power of the interests can be undermined and their maneuvers defeated is by bringing home to the public the danger of its indifference, the absurdity of its prejudices, or the hollowness of its fears; by showing that it is indifferent to danger where real danger exists; frightened by dangers which are nonexistent.

  Norman Angell

  Real, Hate, Home

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• History shows that where ethics and economics come in conflict, victory is always with economics. Vested interests have never been known to have willingly divested themselves unless there was sufficient force to compel them.

  B. R. Ambedkar

  Victory, Ethics, Conflict

  "Political Science for Civil Services Main Examination". Book by N.D. Arora, 2010.

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• Any change is resisted because bureaucrats have a vested interest in the chaos in which they exist.

  Richard M. Nixon

  Change, Chaos, Bureaucracy

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• It is ideas, not vested interests, which are dangerous for good or evil.

  John Maynard Keynes

  Ideas, Evil, Dangerous

  General Theory of Employment (1936; 1947 ed.) ch. 24

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• I am sure that the power of vested interests is vastly exaggerated compared with the gradual encroachment of ideas.

  John Maynard Keynes

  Ideas, Encroachment, Interest

  1936 The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money.

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• The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is generally understood. Indeed, the world is ruled by little else.

  John Maynard Keynes

  Powerful, Freedom, Ideas

  General Theory of Employment (1936; 1947 ed.) ch. 24

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• Do not confuse your vested interests with ethics. Do not identify the enemies of your privilege with the enemies of humanity.

  Max Lerner

  Humanity, Enemy, Privilege

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• Practical men who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist. Madmen in authority, who hear voices in the air, are distilling their frenzy from some academic scribbler of a few years back

  John Maynard Keynes

  Believe, Men, Air

  The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money bk. 6, ch. 24 (1936)

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• Up against the corporate government, voters find themselves asked to choose between look-alike candidates from two parties vying to see who takes the marching orders from their campaign paymasters and their future employers. The money of vested interest nullifies genuine voter choice and trust.

  Ralph Nader

  Party, Government, Order

  Ralph Nader (2007). “Crashing the Party: Taking on the Corporate Government in an Age of Surrender”, p.332, Macmillan

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• I've noticed throughout my long life that people with vested interest in things staying the way they are regularly insist that both change and accountability are impossible.

  Sarah Schulman

  Long, People, Accountability

  Sarah Schulman (2012). “The Gentrification of the Mind: Witness to a Lost Imagination”, p.52, Univ of California Press

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• The Press, which is mostly controlled by vested interests, has an excessive influence on public opinion.

  Albert Einstein

  Public Opinion, Influence, Interest

  Albert Einstein (2010). “Ideas And Opinions”, p.6, Broadway Books

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• It cannot be emphasized too strongly that Christianity has a vested interest in human misery. Christianity, perhaps more than any religion before or since, capitalized on human suffering; and it was enormously successful in insuring its own existence through the perpetuation of human suffering.

  George H. Smith

  Successful, Suffering, Religion

  George H. Smith (2010). “Atheism: The Case Against God”, p.309, Prometheus Books

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• Everyone makes a difference. Someone who does something for others makes a big difference. A person who has no self-interest to do things for others makes a bigger difference. But, one who does everything for everyone for the sake of humanity without vested interest makes a real big difference for sustainability.

  Anuj

  Real, Self, Differences

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• Authoritarian political ideologies have a vested interest in promoting fear, a sense of the imminence of takeover by aliens and real diseases are useful material.

  Susan Sontag

  Real, Political, Disease

  Susan Sontag (2013). “Illness as Metaphor and AIDS and Its Metaphors”, p.107, Penguin UK

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• When governments and other vested interests attack me personally I usually regard it as a vindication, otherwise they would use facts. That's why I believe in the wonderful Claud Cockburn dictum, 'Never believe anything until it is officially denied.' It has certainly been my experience.

  John Pilger

  Believe, Government, Use

  "This much I know". Interview with Tom Templeton, www.theguardian.com. November 13, 2005.

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• We've all got to look at ourselves, start with yourself, that's all you can do. I believe that we can act responsibly as a group, it's just that there are vested interests telling us not to bother.

  Ben Elton

  Believe, Groups, Looks

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• There's nothing so passionate as a vested interest disguised as an intellectual conviction.

  Sean O'Casey

  Intellectual, Passionate, Argument

  Sean O'Casey (1963). “Under a Colored Cap: Articles Merry and Mournful with Comments and a Song”

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