Francis Ysidro Edgeworth quotes

  • Our task is to harness the God-given energy of this German nation to stand firm for the Truth.

  • We all carry within us places of exile, our crimes, our ravages. Our task is not to unleash them on the world; it is to transform them in ourselves and others.

  • When dealing with Canadians, it is advantageous to seem to be negotiating from a position of weakness, for when faced with an abject opponent, they become concession-happy and will accede to almost anything.

  • Just make the right estimation of your own strengths and weaknesses, and also that of your opponent.

  • But how difficult it can be to gain the desired full point against an opponent of inferior strength, when this is demanded by the tournament position!

  • In tennis, it is not the opponent you fear, it is the failure itself, knowing how near you were but just out of reach.

  • Don't take the wrong side of an argument just because your opponent has taken the right side.

  • "Murphys law of economic policy": Economists have the least influence on policy where they know the most and are most agreed; they have the most influence on policy where they know the least and disagree most vehemently.

  • Violence and fraud can create no right.

  • Economists are about as useful as astrologers in predicting the future (and, like astrologers, they never let failure on one occasion diminish certitude on the next).