John Maynard Keynes? Dennis Gabor? Alan L. Mackay? Apocryphal? Anonymous?
Question for Quote Investigator: A cynical taxpayer crafted the following remark:
The avoidance of taxes is the only intellectual pursuit that still carries any reward.
This statement has been credited to the famous economist John Maynard Keynes, but I am skeptical because I have never seen a solid citation. Would you please explore this topic?
Reply from Quote Investigator: The earliest match located by QI appeared in the 1970 book “Innovations: Scientific, Technological, and Social” by Hungarian-British physicist Dennis Gabor. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:1
Even in Britain, where direct taxation has long reached the stage at which, as J. M. Keynes said ‘the avoidance of taxes is the only intellectual pursuit that still carries any award’ and where private households save now only 6 per cent of their income, direct taxation brings in only 40 per cent of the public revenue, which is 38 per cent of the G.N.P.
This version of the quotation used the word “award” instead of “reward”. The statement appeared more than two decades after the death of John Maynard Keynes in 1946. Also, Gabor did not present a citation for the remark. Thus, this evidence is weak.
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
In 1977 British crystallographer Alan L. Mackay published “The Harvest of a Quiet Eye: A Selection of Scientific Quotations” which listed the quotation without a citation:2
John Maynard Keynes 1883-1946
The avoidance of taxes is the only intellectual pursuit that still carries any reward.
In 1981 the quotation appeared in the compilation “Facts and Fallacies” edited by Chris Morgan and David Langford:3
The avoidance of taxes is the only intellectual pursuit that still carries any reward.
John Maynard Keynes
In June 1981 the quotation appeared in the “Sunday Sun” of Newcastle, England:4
The avoidance of tax is the only intellectual pursuit that still carries any reward — John Maynard Keynes.
In 1984 the statement occurred in “The Macmillan Book of Business and Economic Quotations”. The book specified the year 1942, but no citation was given; hence, there was no justification for the year:5
The avoidance of taxes is the only intellectual pursuit that still carries any reward.
JOHN MAYNARD KEYNES, 1942
In 2002 the “Irish Independent” of Dublin, Ireland printed the following:6
Over 50 years ago, John Maynard Keynes argued that ‘the avoidance of taxes is the only pursuit that still carries any reward’.
In conclusion, physicist Dennis Gabor attributed this quotation to John Maynard Keynes in 1970. However, Keynes died in 1946 which means this evidence was weak. Keynes also received credit in the 1977 compilation “The Harvest of a Quiet Eye”; however, QI conjectures this attribution was derived from Gabor. Overall, QI is uncertain whether Keynes deserves credit for this remark.
Image Notes: Illustration of a calculator with coins from motionstock at Pixabay. The image has been cropped and resized.
Acknowledgement: Great thanks to Tonia Cistulli whose inquiry led QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration.
- 1970, Innovations: Scientific, Technological, and Social by Dennis Gabor, Chapter: Social Innovations, Subsection: Monetary and Economic Reforms, Quote Page 94, Oxford University Press, London. (Verified with hardcopy) ↩︎
- 1977, The Harvest of a Quiet Eye: A Selection of Scientific Quotations, Selected by Alan L. Mackay, Section: John Maynard Keynes, Quote Page 87, The Institute of Physics, Bristol and London. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1981 Copyright, Facts and Fallacies: A Book of Definitive Mistakes and Misguided Predictions, Edited by Chris Morgan and David Langford, Chapter Business, Quote Page 42, John Wiley & Sons, Canada Limited, Toronto, Canada. (Verified with hardcopy) ↩︎
- 1981 June 14, Sunday Sun, They must be joking!, Quote Page 14, Column 3, Newcastle, Northumberland, England. (British Newspaper Archive) ↩︎
- 1984 Copyright, The Macmillan Book of Business and Economic Quotations, Edited by Michael Jackman, Topic: Taxes, Quote Page 195, Column 1, Macmillan Publishing Company, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 2002 May 9, Irish Independent, Let’s hope they break those pledges by Jim Power, Section: Business, Quote Page 2, Column 6, Dublin, Republic of Ireland. (British Newspaper Archive) ↩︎