“I do not know which makes a man more conservative — to know nothing but the present, or nothing but the past.”

—  John Maynard Keynes, book Essays in Persuasion

Source: Essays in Persuasion (1931), The End of Laissez-faire (1926), Ch. 1

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "I do not know which makes a man more conservative — to know nothing but the present, or nothing but the past." by John Maynard Keynes?
John Maynard Keynes photo
John Maynard Keynes122
British economist 1883–1946

Related quotes

Oscar Wilde photo

“He to whom the present is the only thing that is present, knows nothing of the age in which he lives.”

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet

"Oscariana" (1907), Complete Works, p. 32 https://books.google.com/books?id=-CtXAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA32

John D. Rockefeller photo

“I know of nothing more despicable and pathetic than a man who devotes all the hours of the waking day to the making of money for money's sake.”

John D. Rockefeller (1839–1937) American business magnate and philanthropist

Random Reminiscences of Men and Events (1906)

Catherine of Genoa photo

“Faith seems to me wholly lost, and hope dead; for it seems to me that I have and hold in certainty that which I believed and hoped at other times. I no longer see union, for I know nothing more and can see nothing more than him alone without me. I do not know where the I is, nor do I seek it, nor do I wish to know or be cognizant of it.”

Catherine of Genoa (1447–1510) Italian author and nurse

Will Durant photo

“I have tried to be impartial, though I know that a man's past always colors his views, and that nothing else is so irritating as impartiality.”

Will Durant book The Story of Civilization

Preface
The Story of Civilization (1935–1975), VI - The Reformation (1957)

Henri Bergson photo

“The present contains nothing more than the past, and what is found in the effect was already in the cause.”

Henri Bergson book Creative Evolution

Creative Evolution (1907), Chapter I, as translated by Arthur Mitchell (1911), p. 14.; italicized in the original.

Sören Kierkegaard photo

“There is nothing with which every man is so afraid as getting to know how enormously much he is capable of doing and becoming.”

Sören Kierkegaard (1813–1855) Danish philosopher and theologian, founder of Existentialism

“The know-nothings are, unfortunately, seldom the do-nothings.”

Mignon McLaughlin (1913–1983) American journalist

The Complete Neurotic's Notebook (1981), Unclassified

George Bernard Shaw photo

“I am very subtle; but Man is deeper in his thought than I am. The woman knows that there is no such thing as nothing: the man knows that there is no such day as tomorrow. I do well to worship them.”

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright

The Serpent, in Pt. I, Act I
1920s, Back to Methuselah (1921)

Simone Weil photo

“The struggle between the opponents and defenders of capitalism is a struggle between innovators who do not know what innovation to make and conservatives who do not know what to conserve.”

Simone Weil (1909–1943) French philosopher, Christian mystic, and social activist

Source: Simone Weil : An Anthology (1986), The Power of Words (1937), p. 233

Tennessee Williams photo

“You are the only young man that I know of who ignores the fact that the future becomes the present, the present the past and the past turns into everlasting regret if you don't plan for it!”

Tennessee Williams The Glass Menagerie

Amanda, Scene Five
Source: The Glass Menagerie (1944)

Related topics