“The paper is perhaps 5 per cent empirical information and 95 per cent speculation, some of it possibly tainted by wishful thinking.”
Source: "Economic growth and income inequality," 1955, p. 26
Context: The paper is perhaps 5 per cent empirical information and 95 per cent speculation, some of it possibly tainted by wishful thinking. The excuse for building an elaborate structure on such a shaky foundation is a deep interest in the subject and a wish to share it with members of the Association. The formal and no less genuine excuse is that the subject is central to much of economic analysis and thinking; that our knowledge of it is inadequate; that a more cogent view of the whole field may help channel our interests and work in intellectually profitable directions; that speculation is an effective way of presenting a broad view of the field; and that so long as it is recognized as a collection of hunches calling for further investigation rather than a set of fully tested conclusions, little harm and much good may result
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Simon Kuznets 11
economist 1901–1985Related quotes
“I have defined the 100 per cent American as 99 per cent an idiot.”
New York Times (19 December 1930) remarks on Sinclair Lewis receiving the Nobel Prize
1930s
“I am 10 per cent politician and 90 per cent human being.”
Source: As quoted in " I am 10% politician and 90% human being: Chandra Shekhar https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/indiascope/voices/story/19800915-i-am-10percent-politician-and-90percent-human-being-chandra-shekhar-821445-2014-01-13", India Today (September 1980)
“I have defined the hundred per cent American as ninety-nine per cent an idiot.”
George Bernard Shaw on Sinclair Lewis receiving the Nobel Prize (1930)
“The US wants only 51 per cent adherence as against 100 per cent adherence demanded by Russia.”
Supporting India's alliance with the US, as quoted in "US A Better Ally For India: Subramanian Swamy" http://www.rediff.com/news/1999/dec/29us.htm, Rediff (29 December 1999)
1999-2010
“The elegant simplicity of the three per cents.”
As quoted in Lives of the Lord Chancellors (1845) by John Campbell, Vol. x. Chap. 212; this precedes the use by Benjamin Disraeli of "The sweet simplicity of the three per cents", in Endymion (1880).
“The sweet simplicity of the three per cents.”
Source: Books, Coningsby (1844), Endymion (1880), Ch. 96. Compare: "The elegant simplicity of the three per cents", Lord Stowell, in Lives of the Lord Chancellors (Campbell), Vol. x, Chap. 212.
Press conference for Ukrainian journalists (November 2006), as quoted in "Lukashenka Must be Dismissed From Office For Rigging Presidential Elections Results" in Charter97 (23 November 2006) http://www.charter97.org/eng/news/2006/11/23/fals.