Quotes by Alfred Marshall

“Capital is that part of wealth which is devoted to obtaining further wealth”

“Economics has as its purpose firstly to acquire knowledge for its own sake, and secondly to throw light on practical issues. But though we are bound, before entering on any study, to consider carefully what are its uses, we should not plan out our work with direct reference to them.”

“The modern developments of economic science in relation to rent indicate progress. For we are learning that what is commonly called the rent of land is really a very complex thing made up of many elements, some of which differ more widely from one another than it, as a whole, differs from profits, or than some elements of it differ from wages.”

(1) Use mathematics as shorthand language, rather than as an engine of inquiry. (2) Keep to them till you have done. (3) Translate into English. (4) Then illustrate by examples that are important in real life (5) Burn the mathematics. (6) If you can’t succeed in 4, burn 3. This I do often.

Capital is that part of wealth which is devoted to obtaining further wealth.

The price of every thing rises and falls from time to time and place to place and with every such change the purchasing power of money changes so far as that thing goes.

But if inventions have increased mans power over nature very much, then the real value of money is better measured for some purposes in labour than in commodities.

Civilized countries generally adopt gold or silver or both as money.