'There are no easy pickings.' That would be a more accurate, less dramatic statement than 'There's no such thing as a free lunch.'
Interpretation
Nothing worthwhile comes without effort; you cannot gain something for nothing.
This quote emphasizes the principle that achieving success or obtaining benefits typically requires hard work and sacrifice. Paul Samuelson underscores the idea that while the phrase 'There's no such thing as a free lunch' suggests a more dramatic interpretation, the reality is that true rewards come from dedicated effort, reinforcing the value of hard work and realistic expectations in life and economics.
In practice
During a motivational speech about the importance of hard work.
To a person of analytical ability, perceptive enough to realise that mathematical equipment was a powerful sword in economics, the world of economics was his or her oyster in 1935. The terrain was strewn with beautiful theorems begging to be picked up and arranged in unified order.
I can't think of a president who has been overburdened by a knowledge of economics.
My belief is that nothing that can be expressed by mathematics cannot be expressed by careful use of literary words.
Politicians like to tell people what they want to hear - and what they want to hear is what won't happen.
My family was well off but not rich. I spent the four years I was an undergraduate working on the beach. And it wasn't because I was lazy; it was because my freshman class would go to a hundred different employers and wouldn't get a nibble. That was a disequilibrium system. I realized that the ordinary old-fashioned Euclidean geometry didn't apply.
Economics has never been a science - and it is even less now than a few years ago.
Both wit and understanding are trifles without integrity; it is that which gives value to every character. The ignorant peasant, without fault, is greater than the philosopher with many; for what is genius or courage without a heart?
What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness? You only truly, deeply appreciate and are grateful for something when you compare and contrast it to something worse.
Anything that contradicts experience and logic should be abandoned.
Irrigators channel waters; fletchers straighten arrows; carpenters bend wood; the wise master themselves.
You never find yourself until you face the truth.
We are all important, but we are not indispensable.
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