Investing Quotes by John Maynard Keynes

The boom, not the slump, is the right time for austerity at the Treasury.

— John Maynard Keynes

The expected never happens; it is the unexpected always.

— John Maynard Keynes

There is nothing so disastrous as a rational investment policy in an irrational world.

— John Maynard Keynes

It is the duty of the long-term investor to endure great losses with equanimity.

— John Maynard Keynes

The markets are moved by animal spirits, and not by reason.

— John Maynard Keynes

Experience shows that what happens is always the thing against which one has not made provision in advance.

— John Maynard Keynes

Investment based on genuine long-term expectations is so difficult today as to be scarcely practicable.

— John Maynard Keynes

Successful investing is anticipating the anticipations of others.

— John Maynard Keynes

“If human nature felt no temptation to take a chance, no satisfaction (profit apart) in constructing a factory, a railway, a mine…

— John Maynard Keynes

Morally and philosophically I find myself in agreement with virtually the whole of it: and not only in agreement with it, but…

— John Maynard Keynes

If you owe your bank manager a thousand pounds, you are at his mercy. If you owe him a million pounds, he…

— John Maynard Keynes

If human nature felt no temptation to take a chance there might not be much investment merely as a result of cold…

— John Maynard Keynes

The destruction of the inducement to invest by an excessive liquidity-preference was the outstanding evil, the prime impediment to the growth of…

— John Maynard Keynes

Never in history was there a method devised of such efficacy for setting each country's advantage at variance with its neighbours' as…

— John Maynard Keynes

It is the long-term investor...who will in practice come in for the most criticism... For it is the essence of his behavior…

— John Maynard Keynes

Thus, the weight of my criticism is directed against the inadequacy of the theoretical foundations of the laissez-faire doctrine upon which I…

— John Maynard Keynes

To suppose that safety-first consists in having a small gamble in a large number of different companies where I have no information…

— John Maynard Keynes

...By combining a popular hatred of the class of entrepreneurs with the blow already given to social security by the violent and…

— John Maynard Keynes

I expect to see the State, which is in a position to calculate the marginal efficiency of capital-goods on long views and…

— John Maynard Keynes

The spectacle of modern investment markets has sometimes moved me towards the conclusion that to make the purchase of an investment permanent…

— John Maynard Keynes

The considerations upon which expectations of prospective yields are based are partly existing facts which we can assume to be known more…

— John Maynard Keynes

A sound banker, alas, is not one who foresees danger and avoids it, but one who, when he is ruined, is ruined…

— John Maynard Keynes

[Silvio] Gesell's chiefwork is written in cool and scientific terms, although it is run through by a more passionate and charged devotion…

— John Maynard Keynes

Nor should the argument seem strange that taxation may be so high as to defeat its object, and that, given sufficient time…

— John Maynard Keynes

Nevertheless, if we contemplate a society with a somewhat stable wage-unit, with national characteristics which determine the propensity to consume and the…

— John Maynard Keynes

In truth, the gold standard is already a barbarous relic. All of us, from the Governor of the Bank of England downwards,…

— John Maynard Keynes

It is the long term investor who will in practice come in for the most criticism. For it is the essence of…

— John Maynard Keynes

As time goes on, I get more and more convinced that the right method in investment is to put fairly large sums…

— John Maynard Keynes

I do not mean to impugn the social justice and social expediency of the redistribution of incomes aimed at by N.I.R.A. and…

— John Maynard Keynes

Markets can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent.

— John Maynard Keynes

The social object of skilled investment should be to defeat the dark forces of time and ignorance which envelope our future.

— John Maynard Keynes

It is generally agreed that casinos should, in the public interest, be inaccessible and expensive. And perhaps the same is true of…

— John Maynard Keynes

... a speculator is one who runs risks of which he is aware and an investor is one who runs risks of…

— John Maynard Keynes

If farming were to be organised like the stock market, a farmer would sell his farm in the morning when it was…

— John Maynard Keynes

One's knowledge and experience are definitely limited and there are seldom more than two or three enterprises at any given time in…

— John Maynard Keynes

It is investment, i.e. the increased production of material wealth in the shape of capital goods, which alone increases national wealth.

— John Maynard Keynes

I conceive, therefore, that a somewhat comprehensive socialisation of investment will prove the means of securing an approximation to full employment.

— John Maynard Keynes

The introduction of a substantial Government transfer tax on all transactions might prove the most serviceable reform available,with a view to mitigating…

— John Maynard Keynes

I am myself impressed by the great social advantages of increasing the stock of capital until it ceases to be scarce.

— John Maynard Keynes

An investor who proposes to ignore near-term market fluctuations needs greater resources for safety and must not operate on so large a…

— John Maynard Keynes