“Economics is that way of understanding behavior that starts from the assumption that people have objectives and tend to choose the correct way to achieve them.”

Price Theory: An Intermediate Text, 1986

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David D. Friedman12

American economist, physicist, legal scholar, and libertari… 1945

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“[T]he assumption describes our actions, not our thoughts. If you had to understand something intellectually in order to do it, none of us would be able to walk.
Economics is based on the assumption that people have reasonably simple objectives and choose means to achieve them. Both assumptions are false-but useful.
Suppose someone is rational only half the time. Since there is generally one right way of doing things and many wrong ways, the rational behavior can be predicted but the irrational cannot. If we assume he is rational, we predict his behavior correctly about half of the tie - far from perfect, but a lot better then nothing. If I could do well at the racetrack I would be a very rich man.
[R]ationality is an assumption I make about other people. I know myself.
[R]ationality is an assumption I make about other people. I know myself well enough to allow for the consequences of my own irrationality. But for the vast mass of my fellow humans, about whom I know very little, rationality is the best predictive assumption available.”

David D. Friedman (1945) American economist, physicist, legal scholar, and libertarian theorist

As cited in Ronald J. Baker (2010) Implementing Value Pricing: A Revolutionary Business Model for Professional Firms. p. 122
Source: Hidden Order: The Economics of Everyday Life, 1996, pp.3-5

“Modem mainstream economic theory bravely assumes that people make their decisions in such a way as to maximize their utility. Accepting this assumption enables economics to predict a great deal of behavior (correctly or incorrectly) without ever making empirical studies of human actors.”

Herbert A. Simon (1916–2001) American political scientist, economist, sociologist, and psychologist

Simon (1990) "Invariants of Human Behavior" in: Annu. Rev. Psychol. 41: p. 6.
1980s and later

“Intervening variables are essential to psychological analysis because without them our description of economic behavior would remain incomplete, our understanding of behavior limited, and our predictions of future behavior incorrect.”

George Katona (1901–1981) American psychologist

George Katona (1951). Psychological Analysis of Economic Behavior. McGraw-Hill, New York. p. 31

“My main objective has been to raise the standard of living of the people, to achieve social and economic progress.”

Maumoon Abdul Gayoom (1937) Maldivian politician, 3rd president of the Maldives

BBC World interview (2003)

“You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.”

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist

“Some people are good at School and others are good at life, both of these ways make you successful. Be wise and choose wisely to achieve whatever you deserve.”

Ayuel Monykuch (1997) South Sudanese Entrepreneur

“I refuse to start from the assumption that the role of monetary policy is to control and stabilize inflation. The only acceptable way to start is, I believe, to think of the goal of monetary policy, together with fiscal policy,as the maximization of welfare.”

Olivier Blanchard (1948) French economist

" Monetary Policy; Science or Art? https://economics.mit.edu/files/742" (2006)

“Explaining economic growth - The achievement motive : how it is measured and its economics effects - Achieving societies in the modern world - Achieving societies in the past - Other psychological factors in economic development - Entrepreneurial behavior - Characteristics of entrepreneurs - The spirit of Hermes - Sources of n achievement - Accelerating economic growth.”

David C. McClelland (1917–1998) American psychological theorist

Book abstract
The Archiving Society, 1961

“Knowledge accumulated during recent decades challenges and contradicts assumptions which are still axiomatic in conventional organizational theory. Unfortunately, those classical principles of organization — derived from inappropriate models, unrelated to the political, social, economic, and technological milieu, and based on erroneous assumptions about behavior — continue to influence our thinking about the management of the human resources of industry. Management's attempts to solve the problems arising from the inadequacy of these assumptions have often involved the search for new formulas, new techniques, new procedures. These generally yield disappointing results because they are adjustments to symptoms rather than causes. The real need is for new theory, changed assumptions, more understanding of the nature of human behavior in organizational settings.”

Douglas McGregor (1906–1964) American professor

Source: The Human Side of Enterprise (1960), p. 17 (2006: 24)

“Try to achieve the impossible and direct your people to ways of achieving it.”

Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum (1949) Emirati politician

Leadership & Success quotes, http://www.sheikhmohammed.co.ae/vgn-ext-templating/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=d2778960a5a11310VgnVCM1000004d64a8c0RCRD&appInstanceName=default, sheikhmohammed.ae.

“Economics is that way of understanding behavior that starts from the assumption that people have objectives and tend to choose the correct way to achieve them.”

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David D. Friedman12

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