Arthur Frank Burns Quotes

United States, Economist
August 27, 1904 – June, 26, 1987.

Arthur Frank Burns (August 27, 1904 – June 26, 1987) was an American economist. His career alternated between academia and government. From 1927 to the 1970s, Burns taught and researched at Rutgers University, Columbia University, and the National Bureau of Economic Research.

As you take leave of [your school], as you graduate into a new life of the mind, may each of you ask yourself this: What am I doing to increase the sum hope of the world? ... What am I doing to teach someone else what I have learned?

Arthur Frank Burns
- Life
- World
- Mind
We all know it's brutal up there at the front, especially those of us at the rear.

Arthur Frank Burns
- Up

Spontaneity has its time and its place.

Arthur Frank Burns
- Time
My efforts to prevent closing of the gold window-working through Connally, Volcker, and Shultz-do not seem to have succeeded. The gold window may have to be closed tomorrow because we now have a government that is incapable, not only of constructive leadership, but of any action at all. What a tragedy for mankind!

Arthur Frank Burns
- May
- Action
- Leadership