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Capitalism is “the astonishing belief that the nastiest motives of the nastiest men somehow or other work for the best results in the best of all possible worlds.”

— John Maynard Keynes Attributed

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Notes from Wikiquote

Recent variant: Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone. | As quoted in Moving Forward: Programme for a Participatory Economy (2000) by Michael Albert, p. 128

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Capitalism

More quotes by John Maynard Keynes

A study of the history of opinion is a necessary preliminary to the emancipation of the mind.

Essays in Persuasion (1931)

Most men love money and security more, and creation and construction less, as they get older.

Essays in Persuasion (1931)

Words ought to be a little wild, for they are the assault of thoughts on the unthinking.

When the accumulation of wealth is no longer of high social importance, there will be great changes in the code of morals.

Essays in Persuasion (1931)

The difficulty lies, not in the new ideas, but in escaping from the old ones, which ramify, for those brought up as most of us have been, into every corner of our minds.

The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money (1936)

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Attribution

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