Economic Quotations
"We aren't in the business of explaining anything!" V. V. Chari
Student: "Professor, would you give us some intuition for this result?" "Intuition? This is Minnesota! We're going to prove it!" V. V. Chari
In response to a student's question: "That was a lot of words for very little content." Pat Kehoe
From Prof. Larry Jones' website: "Adi Omer was presenting his stuff. Larry asked if he tried to do [...] to which Adi said that he tried for a week but then stopped because it was hard. Larry's response was: 'Have you seen my house? Have you seen Chari's house? Economics is ******* hard, you can't just work on a problem for a few days and then give up!' -- Larry Jones"
"This utility function is close to my heart. It happens to be my mother's utility function." Larry Jones
"In economics, it is important to maintain a gentlemanly distance between assumptions and results." Fernando Alvarez
In response to a small, technical detail: "I'm a macroeconomist, not a pain in the ass." José-Víctor Ríos-Rull
Student: "Well, I have a solution to this." "Yeah, yeah, yeah, but I don't give a shit about your solution." José-Víctor Ríos-Rull
"The purpose of studying economics is not to acquire a set of ready-made answers to economic questions, but to learn how to avoid being deceived by economists." Joan Robinson
"When God created economics, He created macroeconomics. By God, of course, I mean Bob Lucas." Alessandro Dovis
"We should point out that the possibility of levying infinitely large penalties (e.g., death or eternal damnation) would alter our analysis." Mailath-Postlewaite (1988)
“The first lesson of economics is scarcity: There is never enough of anything to satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics.” Thomas Sowell
"An economist is an expert who will know tomorrow why the things he predicted yesterday didn't happen today." Laurence J. Peter