Economics of Good and Evil Quotes

“If a discrepancy exists between supply and demand, then for the Stoics the prescription for a happy life was to decrease demand, not to increase supply (or production), which the Hedonists saw as the prescription for a happy life.”
― Tomáš Sedláček, Economics of Good and Evil: The Quest for Economic Meaning from Gilgamesh to Wall Street

“We are not exactly sure what we are growing toward, but we compensate for this shortcoming by accelerating.”
― Tomáš Sedláček, Economics of Good and Evil: The Quest for Economic Meaning from Gilgamesh to Wall Street

“According to Plato, a hierarchy of being and a hierarchy of knowledge exist, knowledge of ideas rests at the top, while at the bottom lies knowledge of trickery, illusions, shadows dancing on cave walls. By the way, mathematical knowledge is not in the highest position; philosophical knowledge is. Mathematics can’t describe the whole truth—even if we were to describe the entire world in precise mathematical equations, we would not have full knowledge.”
― Tomáš Sedláček, Economics of Good and Evil: The Quest for Economic Meaning from Gilgamesh to Wall Street

“Or on a more general level: “So too it is, then, in the case of temperance … the man who indulges in every pleasure and abstains from none becomes self-indulgent, while the man who shuns every pleasure, as boors do, becomes in a way insensible; temperance and courage, then, are destroyed by excess and defect, and preserved by the mean.”
― Tomáš Sedláček, Economics of Good and Evil: The Quest for Economic Meaning from Gilgamesh to Wall Street

“And you can never get enough of what you don’t really need.”
― Tomáš Sedláček, Economics of Good and Evil: The Quest for Economic Meaning from Gilgamesh to Wall Street

“He who gets by with few things is satisfied with few things. He who needs only a little does not have to toil as much. The ideal is not found in consumption and producing assets, but in breaking free of both.”
― Tomáš Sedláček, Economics of Good and Evil: The Quest for Economic Meaning from Gilgamesh to Wall Street

“The fewer things one was dependent on, the freer he felt. Thus it is here from which calls for freedom from the wants (demands) of the flesh come.”
― Tomáš Sedláček, Economics of Good and Evil: The Quest for Economic Meaning from Gilgamesh to Wall Street

“The chief thing which the common-sense individual wants is not satisfactions for the wants he had, but more, and better wants.”
― Tomáš Sedláček, Economics of Good and Evil: The Quest for Economic Meaning from Gilgamesh to Wall Street

“If a consumer buys something, theoretically it should rid him of one of his needs —and the aggregate of things they need should be decreased by one item. In reality, though, the aggregate of “I want to have” expands together with the growing aggregate of “I have.”
― Tomáš Sedláček, Economics of Good and Evil: The Quest for Economic Meaning from Gilgamesh to Wall Street

“Pokud spadne most, není to chyba matematiky, ale stavitele, který ji nesprávně aplikoval — přitom ale nemusel udělat jedinou matematickou chybu. Chyba nebývá v matematice, ale v jejím používání.”
― Tomáš Sedláček, Economics of Good and Evil: The Quest for Economic Meaning from Gilgamesh to Wall Street

“Kdo chce ekonomiku popohánět dluhem, musí ji být připraven brzdit přebytkem, kterým dluh splatí.”
― Tomáš Sedláček, Economics of Good and Evil: The Quest for Economic Meaning from Gilgamesh to Wall Street

“I natolik emotivní zkušenost, jako je láska či přátelství, časem ztvrdne, po mnohonásobném vzájemném potvrzení zkušenosti se stává automatickou součástí našeho života. Ztvrdne do racionální podoby, se kterou prostě počítáme. Ekonom by mohl hovořit o inflaci prožitku, který již nevyvolává stejné emoce jako ve své počáteční panenské podobě. Namísto emocí se dostaví racionální jistota, na kterou se můžeme spolehnout. Ztvrdlá láska není ani horší, ani lepší než láska mladá. Je prostě jiná, vykazuje racionální vlastnosti.”
― Tomáš Sedláček, Economics of Good and Evil: The Quest for Economic Meaning from Gilgamesh to Wall Street

“Závislost je cokoliv, co činí život prázdným, ale navenek to vypadá, že život naplňuje” Estésová, Ženy, které běhaly s vlky”
― Tomáš Sedláček, Economics of Good and Evil: The Quest for Economic Meaning from Gilgamesh to Wall Street

“if the prophecy were “true,” accurate, what was prophesied would often actually never happen. Therefore there is a paradox here: If we are able to anticipate problems and take appropriate measures, they do not have to occur at all.”
― Tomáš Sedláček, Economics of Good and Evil: The Quest for Economic Meaning from Gilgamesh to Wall Street

“One of the things the writers of the Old Testament gave to mankind is the idea and notion of progress. The Old Testament stories have their development; they change the history of the Jewish nation and tie in to each other. The Jewish understanding of time is linear—it has a beginning and an end. The Jews believe in historical progress, and that progress is in this world.”
― Tomáš Sedláček, Economics of Good and Evil: The Quest for Economic Meaning from Gilgamesh to Wall Street

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.51”
― Tomáš Sedláček, Economics of Good and Evil: The Quest for Economic Meaning from Gilgamesh to Wall Street

“Pride and Vanity have built more Hospitals than all the Virtues together Bernard Mandeville7”
― Tomáš Sedláček, Economics of Good and Evil: The Quest for Economic Meaning from Gilgamesh to Wall Street

“A model is nothing more than a story (or, as the economist Weintraub puts it, an autobiography),29 and through errors in current (otherwise well-functioning) models and abstractions we find ways to new stories. The residue that does not fall into the equations of current theories often holds in itself a hidden key to new horizons. Scientists therefore should not round off their errors but, on the contrary should devote maximum attention to them, because it is probably within them that it is possible to find the rudiments of a completely new (perhaps better) axiomatic system.”
― Tomáš Sedláček, Economics of Good and Evil: The Quest for Economic Meaning from Gilgamesh to Wall Street