"Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist."
— John Maynard Keynes
Practical Men Who Believe Themselves To
Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist.
About this quote
This passage appears near the close of The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money (1936), in one of the most celebrated conclusions in the history of economics. Keynes argued that the ideas of economists and political philosophers — even long-dead ones — are more powerful than is commonly understood, and that practical men who believe themselves free of intellectual influences are typically in the grip of an outdated theory. He was partly aiming this observation at advocates of classical laissez-faire economics.
Source
The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, 1936
