George Stigler quotes

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)
And yet I would not freely exchange my science for those of my fellow laureates. They are forever confined in their professional discussions to the small numbers of their fellow scientists. View quote
George Stigler
In the 1950s, I proposed the survivor method of determining the efficient sizes of enterprises, and worked on delivered price systems, vertical integration, and similar topics. View quote
George Stigler
Even before I came to Chicago, I had gotten interested in the existence of dispersion of prices under conditions which economic theory said would yield a single price. View quote
George Stigler
Regulation may be actively sought by an industry, or it may be thrust upon it. View quote
George Stigler
Adam Smith had one overwhelmingly important triumph: he put into the center of economics the systematic analysis of the behavior of individuals pursuing their self-interest under conditions of competition. View quote
George Stigler
Stigler's Law: No scientific discovery is named after its original discoverer. View quote
George Stigler
A Swedish physicist can not discuss his work with fifty people unless he goes abroad. A Swedish economist can get opinions and instructions in his native language from thousands upon thousands of his fellow citizens. View quote
George Stigler
...the number of saintly men has not yet risen to the level where the census makes them a separate statistical category. View quote
George Stigler
I attended schools in Seattle through the University of Washington, from which I was graduated in 1931. I spent the next year at Northwestern University. View quote
George Stigler
In spite of assigning little influence of economists' preachings on actual public policy, I do not believe that economists' influence is negligible. The reconciliation of these views lies in the fact that economists are scientists as well as preachers. Our science seeks to understand how economic institutions and economic systems work, and no informed person can deny that we have made much progress in this work. (George Stigler)
...it is distressing how often one can guess the answer given to an economic question merely by knowing who asks it. View quote
George Stigler
Competition is a tough weed, not a delicate flower. View quote
George Stigler
If you never miss a plane, you're spending too much time at the airport. View quote
George Stigler
There is only one social science and we are its practitioners. View quote
George Stigler
The Chicago Economics Department was in intellectual ferment, although the central issues of the 1930s were very different from those in later times. I had never before encountered minds of that quality at close quarters and they influenced me strongly. View quote
George Stigler
The main insight learned from interdisciplinary studies is the return to specialization. View quote
George Stigler
Mathematics has no symbols for confused ideas. View quote
George Stigler
My interests were aroused, and my faith in the cliches of the subject destroyed, as so often with other subjects, by the discussions with my friend, Aaron Director. View quote
George Stigler
I met my wife, Margaret L. Mack, at the University of Chicago. We were married in 1936. She died in 1970. View quote
George Stigler
My main graduate training was received at the University of Chicago from which I received the Ph.D. in 1938. (George Stigler)
That subject has lost its one time appeal to economists as our science has become more abstract, but my interest has even grown more intense as the questions raised by the sociology of science became more prominent. View quote
George Stigler
It was in the 1960s that I began the detailed study of public regulation. View quote
George Stigler
In 1958, I came to Chicago where I have remained. View quote
George Stigler
My teaching began in 1936 at Iowa State College where T. W. Schultz was the department chairman. View quote
George Stigler