ECON 4020 - GAME THEORY I

Adam Smith needs revision.

—Russell Crowe as John Nash, A Beautiful Mind

And what you do not know is the only thing you know.

—T. S. Eliot

I would add one word for any student beginning economic study who may be discouraged by the severity of the effort which the study, as he will find it exemplified here, seems to require of him. The complicated analyses which economists endeavour to carry through are not mere gymnastic. They are instruments for the bettering of human life. The misery and squalor that surround us, the injurious luxury of some wealthy families, the terrible uncertainty overshadowing many families of the poor—these are evils too plain to be ignored. By the knowledge that our science seeks it is possible that they may be restrained. Out of the darkness light! To search for it is the task, to find it perhaps the prize, which the “dismal science of Political Economy” offers to those who face its discipline.

—Arthur C. Pigou, 1932

Most people are other people. Their thoughts are some one else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.

—Oscar Wilde, de Profundis

It is hard to believe that a man is telling the truth when you know that you would lie if you were in his place.

—H. L. Mencken

No man is an island.

—John Donne

'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.' In other words, love is a dominant strategy.

— Avinash Dixit, Thinking Strategically

'Play interests me very much,' said Hermann: 'but I am not in the position to sacrifice the necessary in the hope of winning the superfluous.'

Alexander Pushkin, The Queen of Spades

Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns.

—Donald Rumsfeld, DoD news briefing, 12 February 2002

If it's true that we are here to help others, then what exactly are the others here for?

—George Carlin

I don't skate to where the puck is, I skate to where it's going to be.

—Wayne Gretzky

I can calculate the motions of the heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people.

—Sir Isaac Newton

It seems that I have spent my entire time trying to make life more rational and that it was all wasted effort.

—A. J. Ayers, Observer, 17 Aug. 1986