"The purpose of taxation is never to raise money but to leave less in the hands of the taxpayer."---Abba Lerner, 1944

"Economics is all about how people make decisions. Sociology is all about why they don’t have any decisions to make."---James Suesenberry, 1978

"Young people nowadays imagine that money is everything. When they get older, they know it.---Oscar Wilde, 1895

"Finance is the art of passing money from hand to hand until it finally disappears."---Robert Sarnoff, 1964

"The basic law of capitalism is you or I. It is not both you and I."---Karl Liebknecht, 1907

On marketing: "In the factory, we make cosmetics. In the drug store, we sell hope."---Charles Revson

"Tax reform is when you take taxes off things that have been taxed in the past...and put taxes on things that haven’t been taxed before."---Art Buchwald, 1974

"Bankruptcy is when you put your money in your pants pocket and let the creditors take your coat."---Robert Edwards, 1921

"most people like hard work---particularly when they’re paying for it."---Franklin Jones

On the class structure: "There has never yet existed a wealthy and civilized society in which one portion of the community did not, in point of fact, live on the labor of the other."---John Calhoun, 1837

"Economists are like police officers and armies. They are most successful when their services are needed least."---Shlomo Maital, 1982

"No rich man is ugly"---Zsa Zsa Gabor, 1975

"In a consumer society, the best produce you can manufacture is one that must be replaced immediately."---Gene Lees, 1969

"The nation should have a tax system which looks like someone designed it on purpose."---William Simon, 1977

The most difficult part of getting to the top of the ladder is getting through the crowd at the bottom.---Arch Ward, 1951

"The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would hire them away."---Ronald Reagan, 1976

Vacation is time off, to remind employees that the business can get along without them.---Earl Wilson, 1949

"virtually everything is under federal control nowadays...except the federal budget"---Herman Talmadge, 1975

Competition brings out the best in products and the worst in people."---David Sarnoff, 1964

"It’s pretty hard to tell what does bring happiness. Poverty and wealth have both failed."---Frank Hubbard, 1919

"The point to remember is that what the government gives...it must first take away."---John Coleman, 1954

"If you can count your money, then you’re not a billionaire."---J. Paul Getty, 1966

"The only thing that saves us from bureaucracy is its inefficiency."---Eugene McCarthy, 1975

It is a socialist idea that making profits is a vice---I consider the real vice is making loses."---Winston Churchill, 1951

"In an underdeveloped country, don’t drink the water. In a developed country, don’t breathe the air"---Jonathan Raban, 1976

"The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax."---Albert Einstein, 1953

On credit. "Credit buying is much like being drunk. The buzz happens immediately, and it gives you a lift. The hangover comes the day after."---Joyce Brothers, 1971

"Do you wish to be remembered? Leave a lot of debts."---John Raper, 1954

"I’ve never been poor, only broke. Being poor is a frame of mind. Being broke is a temporary situation."---Michael Todd, 1958

"A citizen can hardly distinguish between a tax and a fine...except the fine is generally much lighter."---Gilbert Chesterton, 1933

Profit is merely the index...the proof that production was for use.---Gustave Stolper, 1942

Regarding America. "It’s a great country, but you can’t live in it for nothing."---Will Rogers, 1929

Regarding inflation: "Prices are going up by the elevator and wages are going down by the stairs"---Robert Beer, 1965

"Don’t be afraid to take a big step when one is needed. You can’t cross a chasm in two small steps."---David Lloyd George, 1936

"One cannot walk through a mass production factory and not feel that one is in Hell."---W.H. Auden, 1953

On prosperity. "The trick is to make sure you don’t die waiting for prosperity to come."---Lee Iacocca, 1973

"Going to work for a large company is like getting on a train. Are you going 60 miles an hour, or is the train going 60 miles an hour and you’re just sitting still?"---J. Paul Getty, 1971

"What is the name of the greatest inventor? Accident."---Mark Twain, 1875

Nobody who has wealth to distribute, ever omits himself.---Leon Trotsky, 1937

On planning for the future: "It wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark."---Howard Ruff, 1980

"A bargain is something you can’t use at a price you can’t resist"---Franklin Jones, 1924

"I’d rather be a beggar and spend my last dollar like a king, than be a king and spend my money like a beggar."---Robert Ingersoll, 1933

"The real problem is not whether machines think...but whether men do".---B.F. Skinner, 1969

"Unemployment insurance is a prepaid vacation plan for freeloaders."---Ronald Reagan, 1980

Good time, bad times, there will always be advertising. In good times, people want to advertise, in bad times, they have to."---Bruce Barton, 1955

"Socialism is nothing but the capitalism of the lower classes."---Oswald Spengler, 1923

"The American system of ours, call it Americanism, call it Capitalism, call it what you like, gives each and every one of us a great opportunity if we only seize it with both hands and make the most of it."---Al Capone, 1929

"The entire essence of America is the hope to first make money---then make money with money---then make lots of money with lots of money."---Paul Erdman, 1967

"A bank is a place that will lend you money if you can prove that you don’t need it."---Bob Hope, 1967

"The government fighting inflation is like the Mafia fighting crime."---Laurence Peter, 1982

"If you build up a business big enough, it’s respectable."---Will Rogers, 1924