Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist.
 John Maynard Keynes, The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money (1936). copy citation

Context

“While it would be nice to say he underestimated himself and modestly assumed his contribution to be "a voice in a choir", Keynes was fully aware of the impact he and his fellow economists had on the world: "The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed the world is ruled by little else. Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist."
Steven Guess February 16, 2003 Steven is Editor-in-Chief of Standard Profit.com, an economics analysis company This book is chiefly addressed to my fellow economists. I hope that it will be intelligible to others.” source

Meaning and analysis

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