Character Quote by Ted Malloch

“If morality represents how people would like the world to work, then economics shows how it actually does work.”

— Steven D. Levitt

“There are three basic flavours of incentive: economic, social and moral.”

— Steven D. Levitt

Morality, it could be argued, represents the way that people would like the world to work, wheareas economics represents how it actually does work.

— Anonymous

Money, not morality, is the principle of commerce and commercial nations.

— Thomas Jefferson

Economics that hurt the moral well-being of an individual or a nation are immoral and, therefore, sinful.

— Mahatma Gandhi

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

My belief is that the purpose of economic life is to meet the social needs of people.

— Maurice Strong

“As we suggested near the beginning of this book, if morality represents an ideal world, then economics represents the actual world.”

— Steven D. Levitt

Morality, like other inputs into the social process, follows the law of diminishing returns- meaning ultimately, negative returns. People can be too moral.

— Thomas Sowell

“The moral transformation of individuals engaged in economic transactions tend to become, for example, the answer to economic problems: if only our greedy CEOs…

— Kathryn Tanner

Capitalism actually encourages morality because capitalism can't function well if people can't trust each other and people aren't honest, if a deal isn't a…

— Rick Santorum

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

— Anonymous