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In my youth it was said that what was too silly to be said may be sung. In modern economics it may be put into mathematics.

— Ronald Coase Ronald H. Coase (1988)

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More quotes by Ronald Coase

If you torture the data enough, nature will always confess.

How should economists choose? (1981)

A firm consist of the system of relationships which comes into existence when the direction of resources is dependent on an entrepreneur.

The Nature of the Firm (1937)

If economists wished to study the horse, they wouldn't go and look at horses. They'd sit in their studies and say to themselves, "what would I do if I were a horse?"

American institutionalists were not theoretical but anti-theoretical.... Without a theory they had nothing to pass on except a mass of descriptive material waiting for a theory, or a fire.

Ronald H. Coase (1984)

What I have done is to show the importance for the working of the economic system of what may be termed the institutional structure of production.

The Institutional Structure of Production (1992)

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We must do away with the absolutely specious notion that everybody has to earn a living.

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Economics is on the side of humanity now.

Isaac Asimov Empire novels (1950)

Since the state must necessarily provide subsistence for the criminal poor while undergoing punishment, not to do the same for the poor who have not offended is to give a premium on crime.

John Stuart Mill Principles of Political Economy (1848)

Economy, in the estimation of common minds, often means the absence of all taste and comfort.

Sydney Smith Lady Holland's Memoir (1855)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Ronald Coase (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.