Definitions

Economy is the art of making most of life.
- George Bernard Shaw

Economics is the study of mankind in the ordinary business of life.
- Alfred Marshall

Economics is the science which studies human behaviour as a relationship between ends and scarce means which have alternative uses.
- Lionel Robbins

Economics comes in whenever more of one thing means less of another.
- Fritz Machlup

The theory of economics is a method rather than a doctrine, an apparatus of mind, a technique of thinking, which helps its possessor to draw correct conclusions.
- John Maynard Keynes

Economics is the study of the use of scarce resources to satisfy unlimited human wants.
- Richard Lipsey

The above attempts to define the discipline of economics in a short, concise sentence indicate that the discipline has both individual and social dimensions. The discipline straddles the areas of arts and science, of theory and policy, and provides a fascinating mechanism for interpreting human behaviour, individually and collectively.