Michael

“What does not yet exist cannot now be known. The future is imagined by each man for himself and this process of the imagination is a vital part of the process of decision. But it does not make the future known. The absolute and eternal difference between the recorded past and the unformed future, despite its overwhelming significance for the very stuff of human existence, has been often overlooked in our economic theories.”
― G.L.S. Shackle, Epistemics and Economics: A Critique of Economic Doctrines

“The writing of contemporary history can be among the most treacherous of ambitions. Everybody knows we never appreciate what we have till it’s gone; that the owl of Minerva flies at dusk; that familiarity breeds contempt; and so forth.”
― Philip Mirowski

“...whatever their intentions, the topic addressed by Arrow and Debreu was the coherence of economic theory, not the coordination of economic activities.”
― Brian J. Loasby

“Economists came along after the existence of the phenomena they try to understand. In other words, economists emerged in a philosophic effort to understand an already existing practice. This point has broad implications for the nature of the discipline, even though we do not usually address then in introductory courses.”
― Peter J. Boettke, Living Economics: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow