On Economics:

Economics is “the study of mankind in the ordinary business of life.”   Alfred Marshall, 1842-1924 (U.K. economist).

“The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design.” Friedrich von Hayek, 1899-1992 (Austrian-born, U.K. citizen economist).

“…persons, with big wigs many of them and austere aspect, whom I take to be Professors of the Dismal Science.”  Thomas Carlyle, 1795-1881 (Scot. teacher, writer, satirist), on the (sometimes) dreary character of economics.

On economists:

“In the long run we are all dead.”  John Maynard Keynes, 1883-1946 (U.K. economist), referring to economists’ emphasis on the future impact of their ideas. 

“Give me a one-handed economist. All my economists say, “On the one-hand; on the other.” Harry Truman, 1884-1972 (U.S. president).

The Economic Lesson

Economics books say that economics is a social science that explores how we produce and distribute scarce resources (land, labor, capital).