Source: The Future As History (1960), Chapter I, Part 3, The Future as the Mirror of the Past, p. 19
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The Worldly Philosophers
Robert L. Heilbroner
Robert L. Heilbroner:
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Famous Robert L. Heilbroner Quotes
Source: The Worldly Philosophers (1953), Chapter VI, Karl Marx, p. 148
Source: The Worldly Philosophers (1953), Chapter VIII, Thorstein Veblen, p. 233
Source: The Worldly Philosophers (1953), Chapter XI, Beyond the Economic Revolution, p. 317
Source: The Worldly Philosophers (1953), Chapter VIII, Thorstein Veblen, p. 224
Source: The Worldly Philosophers (1953), Chapter IX, John Maynard Keynes, p. 269
Robert L. Heilbroner Quotes about the future
Source: The Future As History (1960), Chapter II, Part 7, The Drift Away From Capitalism, p. 94
Source: The Future As History (1960), Chapter III, Part 12, The Deepening Confusion, p. 170
Source: The Future As History (1960), Chapter I, Part 8, The Marxian Blow, p. 41
Robert L. Heilbroner Quotes
Source: The Future As History (1960), Chapter IV, Part 9, The Grand Dynamic of History, p. 209
Context: In an age which no longer waits patiently through this life for the rewards of the next, it is a crushing spiritual blow to lose one's sense of participation in mankind's journey, and to see only a huge milling-around, a collective living-out of lives with no larger purpose than the days which each accumulates. When we estrange ourselves from history we do not enlarge, we diminish ourselves, even as individuals. We subtract from our lives one meaning which they do in fact possess, whether we recognize it or not. We cannot help living in history. We can only fail to be aware of it. If we are to meet, endure, and transcend the trials and defeats of the future — for trials and defeats there are certain to be — it can only be from a point of view which, seeing the future as part of the sweep of history, enables us to establish our place in that immense procession in which is incorporated whatever hope humankind may have.
“No more profound moral indictment of capitalism had ever been posed.”
Source: The Worldly Philosophers (1953), Chapter VII, The Underworld of Economics, p. 188
Context: The book was called Imperialism; it was a devastating volume. For here was the most important and searing criticism which had ever been levied against the profit system. The worst that Marx had claimed was that the system would destroy itself; what Hobson suggested was that it might destroy the world. He saw the process of imperialism as a relentless and restless tendency of capitalism to rescue itself from a self-imposed dilemma, a tendency that necessarily involved foreign commercial conquest and that thereby inescapably involved a constant risk of war. No more profound moral indictment of capitalism had ever been posed.
“The profit motive, we are constantly being told, is as old as man himself.”
Source: The Worldly Philosophers (1953), Chapter II, The Economic Revolution, p. 15
Context: It may strike us as odd that the idea of gain is a relatively modern one; we are schooled to believe that man is essentially an acquisitive creature and that left to himself he will behave as any self-respecting businessman would. The profit motive, we are constantly being told, is as old as man himself.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Source: The Worldly Philosophers (1953), Chapter IX, John Maynard Keynes, p. 257
“It was the unemployment that was the hardest to bear.”
Source: The Worldly Philosophers (1953), Chapter IX, John Maynard Keynes, p. 240
Context: It was the unemployment that was the hardest to bear. The jobless millions were like an embolism in the nation's vital circulation; and while their indisputable existence argued more forcibly than any text that something was wrong with the system, the economists wrung their hands and racked their brains and called upon the spirit of Adam Smith, but could offer neither diagnosis or remedy.
Source: The Worldly Philosophers (1953), Chapter VII, The Underworld of Economics, p. 188
Context: The book was called Imperialism; it was a devastating volume. For here was the most important and searing criticism which had ever been levied against the profit system. The worst that Marx had claimed was that the system would destroy itself; what Hobson suggested was that it might destroy the world. He saw the process of imperialism as a relentless and restless tendency of capitalism to rescue itself from a self-imposed dilemma, a tendency that necessarily involved foreign commercial conquest and that thereby inescapably involved a constant risk of war. No more profound moral indictment of capitalism had ever been posed.
“Nothing could be further from the truth.”
Source: The Worldly Philosophers (1953), Chapter II, The Economic Revolution, p. 15
Context: It may strike us as odd that the idea of gain is a relatively modern one; we are schooled to believe that man is essentially an acquisitive creature and that left to himself he will behave as any self-respecting businessman would. The profit motive, we are constantly being told, is as old as man himself.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Source: The Worldly Philosophers (1953), Chapter X, The Modern World, p. 281
Source: The Worldly Philosophers (1953), Chapter IV, Parson Malthus and David Ricardo, p. 77
“Nobody wanted this commercialization of life.”
Source: The Worldly Philosophers (1953), Chapter II, The Economic Revolution, p. 21
Source: The Worldly Philosophers (1953), Chapter VI, Karl Marx, p. 152
Source: The Future As History (1960), Chapter IV, Part 1, A Recapitulation, p. 177
Source: The Future As History (1960), Chapter I, Part 6, The Inevitability of Progress, p. 31
Source: The Worldly Philosophers (1953), Chapter XI, Beyond the Economic Revolution, p. 307
“The total amount of electric power generated by India would not suffice to light up New York City.”
Source: The Future As History (1960), Chapter II, Part 5, The Terrible Ascent, p. 81
Source: The Worldly Philosophers (1953), Chapter VI, Karl Marx, p. 137
Source: The Future As History (1960), Chapter IV, Part 6, The Inertia of History, p. 195
Source: The Worldly Philosophers (1953), Chapter X, The Modern World, p. 278
Source: The Worldly Philosophers (1953), Chapter VI, Karl Marx, p. 158
Source: The Worldly Philosophers (1953), Chapter IX, John Maynard Keynes, p. 248-249
“The Wealth of Nations may not be an original book, but it is unquestionably a masterpiece.”
Source: The Worldly Philosophers (1953), Chapter III, Adam Smith, p. 42
Source: The Future As History (1960), Chapter III, part 10, The Mastery of Technology, p. 161
Source: The Worldly Philosophers (1953), Chapter VI, Karl Marx, p. 128
Source: The Worldly Philosophers (1953), Chapter III, Adam Smith, p. 62
“The distribution of wealth, therefore, depends on the laws and customs of society.”
Source: The Worldly Philosophers (1953), Chapter V, The Utopian Socialists, p. 123
“He who enlists a man's mind wields a power even greater than the sword or the scepter.”
Source: The Worldly Philosophers (1953), Chapter I, Introduction, p. 3
Source: The Future As History (1960), Chapter III, Part 9, The Embrarras De Richesses, p. 150
“History, as it comes into our daily lives, is charged with surprise and shock.”
Source: The Future As History (1960), Chapter I, Part 1, The Shock of Events, p. 13
Source: The Worldly Philosophers (1953), Chapter IV, Parson Malthus and David Ricardo, p. 71
Source: The Future As History (1960), Chapter II, Part 1, The Impact of the Bomb, p. 64
