… is from page 9 of David D. Friedman, Law’s Order (2000) – a wonderful and spirited introduction to law and economics:
But I do not know other people – the vast masses of other people to whom economic analysis of law is intended to apply – well enough to incorporate their irrationalities into my analysis of the effect of legal rules on their behavior. What I do know about them is that they, like me, have purposes they wish to achieve and tend, albeit imperfectly, to correctly choose how to achieve them. That is the predictable element in human behavior, and it is on that element that economics is built.
