Paul Samuelson Quotes

What we know about the global financial crisis is that we don't know very much.

Paul Samuelson

• Know
• Crisis
• Very Much

Globalization presumes sustained economic growth. Otherwise, the process loses its economic benefits and political support.

Paul Samuelson

• Support
• Benefits
• Globalization

Every good cause is worth some inefficiency.

Paul Samuelson

• Good
• Cause
• Inefficiency

The problem is no longer that with every pair of hands that comes into the world there comes a hungry stomach. Rather it is that, attached to those hands are sharp elbows.

Paul Samuelson

• World
• Hands
• Elbows

Economics is a choice between alternatives all the time. Those are the trade-offs.

Paul Samuelson

• Economics
• Alternatives
• Trade-offs

The very name of my subject, economics, suggests economizing or maximizing. But Political Economy has gone a long way beyond home economics.

Paul Samuelson

• Home
• Economics
• Subject

Good questions outrank easy answers.

Paul Samuelson

• Questions
• Answers

You're not making a decision if you come to a fork in the road. There is no 'it' to take. It's one or the other.

Paul Samuelson

• Decision
• Road
• Fork

The remarkable fact is not how much government does to control economic activity, but how much it does not do.

Paul Samuelson

• Control
• Government
• Economic

Politicians like to tell people what they want to hear - and what they want to hear is what won't happen.

Paul Samuelson

• Happen
• Hear
• Politicians

Economics has never been a science - and it is even less now than a few years ago.

Paul Samuelson

• Science
• Economics
• Less

Companies are not charitable enterprises: They hire workers to make profits. In the United States, this logic still works. In Europe, it hardly does.

Paul Samuelson

• Companies
• Workers
• Profits

Women are men without money.

Paul Samuelson

• Men
• Women
• Money