Time Preference Quotes

The long run is a misleading guide to current affairs. In the long run we are all dead.

In all my study of history, I have never found a time or place I would rather have lived than now.

I'm sure partial to the evening,' Augustus said. 'The evening and the morning. If we just didn't have to have the rest of the dern day I'd be a lot happier.

Later is always my first choice.

The theory of interest was wrapped in utter obscurity, until Hume and Smith dispelled the vapor.

When [my friend] had her kid, she was like, "9:30?! I'm not living in Barcelona. I need dinner at 6." I never got that until now. Four years ago, when I met her, I thought that was extreme. I was like, "I love Barcelona!" Now, I'm so mad when someone suggests an 8 pm reservation because that means we won't eat until 8:30 or 9 pm. Forget it!

I would rather have one minute at this age than a month at 21.

One of the big take-aways from a lot of economic theory is that people should engage in consumption smoothing.

Would you rather suffer 90 minutes or 90 years?

If we are going to have a Fed, it should not fall into the tyranny of experts with the a fatal conceit that a few wise people can determine interest rates. Interest rates should be driven by the market, and people's time preference, and we see these boom-bust cycles.

Time perspective is one of the most powerful influences on all of human behavior. We're trying to show how people become biased to being exclusively past-, present- or future-oriented.

Praise they that will times past, I joy to see My selfe now live: this age best pleaseth mee.

The balancing of present wants against the future is really the central problem of ethics.

It's hard to think about 20 to 30 years down the road. Most people want to use the money now - it's tough.

History is apt to judge harshly those who sacrifice tomorrow for today.

There are two paths people can take. They can either play now and pay later, or pay now and play later. Regardless of the choice, one thing is certain. Life will demand a payment.

Skiing is better than sex actually, because for me a good round of sex might be seven minutes. Skiing you can do for seven hours.

It is clear that men accept an immediate pain rather than an immediate pleasure, but only because they expect a greater pleasure in the future. Often the pleasure is illusory, but their error in calculation is no refutation of the rule.

The more consistently Austrian School an economist is, the better a writer he will be.

Psychologists and economists love to talk about the notion of two selves: present self and future self. It's a nice way to explain the tendency to have one preference about the future, but a very different preference when the future becomes the present.