“The delicate and intricate pattern of competition and cooperation in the economic behavior of the hundreds of thousands of citizens of Stockholm offers a challenge to the economist that is perhaps as complex as the challenges of the physicist and the chemist.”

—  George Stigler

"George J. Stigler - Banquet Speech," 1982

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Sept. 14, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The delicate and intricate pattern of competition and cooperation in the economic behavior of the hundreds of thousands…" by George Stigler?
George Stigler photo
George Stigler 20
American economist 1911–1991

Related quotes

Ward Cunningham photo

“I actually enjoy complexity that's empowering. If it challenges me, the complexity is very pleasant.”

Ward Cunningham (1949) American computer programmer who developed the first wiki

A Conversation with Ward Cunningham (2003), The Simplest Thing that Could Possibly Work
Context: I actually enjoy complexity that's empowering. If it challenges me, the complexity is very pleasant. But sometimes I must deal with complexity that's disempowering. The effort I invest to understand that complexity is tedious work. It doesn't add anything to my abilities.

“Complex things are easy to do. Simplicity's the real challenge.”

Robert James Waller The Bridges of Madison County

Source: The Bridges of Madison County

Fritjof Capra photo

“Economics emphasizes competition, expansion, and domination; ecology emphasizes cooperation, conservation, and partnership.”

Fritjof Capra (1939) American physicist

Epilogue: Ecological Literacy
The Web of Life (1996)

Tjalling Koopmans photo

“While it was long possible and sometimes tempting for physicists to deny the usefulness of the molecular hypothesis, we economists have the good luck of being some of the ‘molecules’ of economic life ourselves, and of having the possibility through human contacts to study the behavior of other ‘molecules’.”

Tjalling Koopmans (1910–1985) Dutch American economist

Tjalling Koopmans in: Review of economics and statistics, Vol. 31 -(1949), p. 87

Yuzuru Hanyu photo

“I try to find challenges after every competition and overcome them the next time.”

Yuzuru Hanyu (1994) Japanese figure skater (1994-)

Featured quote from Hanyu in his athlete profile https://www.olympicchannel.com/de/athletes/detail/yuzuru-hanyu/ on the Olympic Channel, as of September 2020.
Other quotes

Aneurin Bevan photo

“The challenge is going to come from Russia. The challenge is not going to come from the United States. The challenge is not going to come from West Germany nor from France. The challenge is going to come from those countries who, however wrong they may be – and I think they are wrong in many fundamental respects – nevertheless are at long last being able to reap the material fruits of economic planning and of public ownership. … Our main case is and must remain that in a modern complex society it is impossible to get rational order by leaving things to private economic adventure. Therefore I am a Socialist. I believe in public ownership.”

Aneurin Bevan (1897–1960) Welsh politician

Speech to the Labour Party Conference in Blackpool (October 1959), quoted in Michael Foot, Aneurin Bevan: A Biography. Volume II: 1945–1960 (Davis-Poynter, 1973), pp. 646–647 and Ben Pimlott, Harold Wilson (Harper Collins, 1993), p. 230
1950s

Peter F. Drucker photo

“It is not enough for the economist in a free society to be a good economic craftsman; he must also think and act as a citizen.”

Peter F. Drucker (1909–2005) American business consultant

Source: 1930s- 1950s, An Economist Looks At the Peace (1945)

Anthony Kennedy photo

“Some kinds of government regulation of private consensual homosexual behavior may face substantial constitutional challenge.”

Anthony Kennedy (1936) Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States

Beller v. Middendorf, 632 F.2d 788, 809-10 (9th Cir. 1980) upholding a Navy discharge for homosexual conduct.

Lyndon B. Johnson photo

“It is from the exercise of this right that the guarantee of all our other rights flows. Unless the right to vote be secure and undenied, all other rights are insecure and subject to denial for all our citizens. The challenge to this right is a challenge to America itself. We must meet this challenge as decisively as we would meet a challenge mounted against our land from enemies abroad.”

Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–1973) American politician, 36th president of the United States (in office from 1963 to 1969)

1960s, Special message to Congress on the right to vote (1965)
Context: In our system, the first right and most vital of all our fights is the right to vote. Jefferson described the elective franchise as "the ark of our safety." It is from the exercise of this right that the guarantee of all our other rights flows. Unless the right to vote be secure and undenied, all other rights are insecure and subject to denial for all our citizens. The challenge to this right is a challenge to America itself. We must meet this challenge as decisively as we would meet a challenge mounted against our land from enemies abroad.

Related topics