Assumption Quote by Gary Becker

The dynamo of our economic system is self-interest which may range from mere petty greed to admirable types of self-expression.

— Felix Frankfurter

“When economists base their models on their fantasies of an "economic man" motivated only by self-interest, they forget community--the all-important web of meaning we…

— Cacilda Jethá

The individualism of current economic theory is manifest in the purely self-interested behaviour it generally assumes. It has no real place for fairness, malevolence,…

— Herman E. Daly

Self-interest is the most ingenious and persuasive of all the agents that deceive our consciences, while by means of it our unhappy and stubborn…

— William C. Bryant

We have always known that heedless self interest was bad morals, we now know that it is bad economics.

— Anonymous

self-interest usually brings injustice with it.

— Catherine the Great

We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals; we know now that it is bad economics. Out of the collapse of a…

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

“If you press people to identify the motives behind their self-interest it usually boils down to four items: money, power, status, and popularity.”

— Marshall Goldsmith

Is it really true that political self-interest is nobler somehow than economic self-interest?

— Milton Friedman

One of the peculiarities of economics is that it still rests on a behavioral assumption-rational utility maximization-that has long since been rejected by sociologists…

— Lester Thurow

“If the world were full of the self-seeking individuals found in economics textbooks, it would grind to a halt because we would be spending…

— Ha-Joon Chang

My interest in economics just basically comes because I think I'm a curious person, and I'm interested in how the world works.

— Kane