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Prices instruct us on what people desire, but prices do not tell us why those things are desired. Our desires are accepted as a datum by economists: desires are some amalgam of biological needs, the cultural values of the society in which we grow up, and our own experiments.

— George Stigler The Theory of Price (1946)

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More quotes by George Stigler

Regulation may be actively sought by an industry, or it may be thrust upon it.

Unexpected changes, on the contrary, lead to windfall gains or losses for those who are in the right or wrong places at a given time.

The Theory of Price (1946)

Economics, I thus believe, has a useful past, a past that is useful in dealing with the future.

One should hardly have to tell academicians that information is a valuable resource: knowledge is power. And yet this occupies a slum dwelling in the town of economics. Mostly it is ignored.

Footnotes are not an occasional token of respect for an obsolete and purposeless tradition. It will come as a shock to many, I am sure, even to realize that references can be checked.

The Intellectual and the Marketplace (1965)

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