Joseph Schumpeter

Economists have never allowed their analysis to be influenced by psychologists of their time, but have always framed for themselves such assumptions about psychical processes as they have thought it desirable to make.

— Joseph Schumpeter

Chentlemen, you are vorried about the depression[sic]. You should not be. For capitalism, a depression is a good, cold douche.

— Joseph Schumpeter

When we inquire about the general forms of economic phenomena, about their uniformities, or about a key to understanding them, we ipso facto indicate that we wish at that moment to consider them as something to be investigated, to be sought for, as the “unknown”; and that we wish to trace them to the relatively “known,” just as any science deals with its object of inquiry.

— Joseph Schumpeter

Why do entrepreneurs appear, not continuously, that is singly in every appropriately chosen interval, but in clusters? Exclusively because the appearance of one or a few entrepreneurs facilitates the appearance of others, and these the appearance of more, in ever-increasing numbers.

— Joseph Schumpeter

Many things may be copied by the latter; the example as such also acts upon them; and many achievements directly serve other branches too [...].

— Joseph Schumpeter

The more the process of development becomes familiar and a mere matter of calculation to all concerned, and the weaker the obstacles become in the course of time, the less the “leadership” that will be needed to call forth innovations. Hence the less pronounced will become the swarm-like appearance of entrepreneurs and the milder the cyclical movement.

— Joseph Schumpeter

The swarm-like appearance of new combinations easily and necessarily explains the fundamental features of periods of boom.

— Joseph Schumpeter