37 Quotes by Frank Knight

I have been....moved to wonder whether my job is a job or a racket, whether economists, and particularly economic theorists, may not be in the position that Cicero, citing Cato, ascribed to the augurs of Rome-that they should cover their faces or burst into laugher when they met on the street.

The probability of the people in power being individuals who would dislike the possession and exercise of power is on a level with the probability that an extremely tender-hearted person would get the job of whipping-master in a slave plantation.

Sociology isthescience of talk, and there is onlyone law in sociology. Bad talk drives out good.

Knowledge is more a matter of learning than of the exercise of absolute judgment. Learning requires time, and in time the situation dealt with, as well as the learner, undergoes change.

Large scale collective bargaining . . . is merely a seductive name for bilateral monopoly, and means either adjudication of conflicts in terms of power, or deadlock and stoppage, usually injuring outside people more than the immediate parties to the dispute.

Market competition is the only form of organization which can afford a large measure of freedom to the individual.

The truth seems . . . to be that in the ultimate and essential problem the economic factor is relatively superficial and unimportant.

Never waste any time you can spend sleeping.

We have to adapt and overcome, that’s all we can do.