Quotes by John Kenneth Galbraith

Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, it's just the opposite.

— John Kenneth Galbraith

Wisdom

Economics is extremely useful as a form of employment for economists.

— John Kenneth Galbraith

Wisdom

The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.

— John Kenneth Galbraith

Wisdom

Faced with the choice between changing one's mind and proving that there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof.

— John Kenneth Galbraith

Wisdom

Meetings are indispensable when you don't want to do anything.

— John Kenneth Galbraith

Wisdom

The conventional view serves to protect us from the painful job of thinking.

— John Kenneth Galbraith

Wisdom

Much literary criticism comes from people for whom extreme specialization is a cover for either grave cerebral inadequacy or terminal laziness, the latter being a much cherished aspect of academic freedom.

— John Kenneth Galbraith

Freedom

The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable.

— John Kenneth Galbraith

Wisdom

We all agree that pessimism is a mark of superior intellect.

— John Kenneth Galbraith

Wisdom

All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership.

— John Kenneth Galbraith

Wisdom

It is a far, far better thing to have a firm anchor in nonsense than to put out on the troubled seas of thought.

— John Kenneth Galbraith

Wisdom

In economics, the majority is always wrong.

— John Kenneth Galbraith

Wisdom

Total physical and mental inertia are highly agreeable, much more so than we allow ourselves to imagine. A beach not only permits such inertia but enforces it, thus neatly eliminating all problems of guilt. It is now the only place in our overly active world that does.

— John Kenneth Galbraith

Life

Power is not something that can be assumed or discarded at will like underwear.

— John Kenneth Galbraith

Wisdom

There is something wonderful in seeing a wrong-headed majority assailed by truth.

— John Kenneth Galbraith

Truth

Economics is a subject profoundly conducive to cliche, resonant with boredom. On few topics is an American audience so practiced in turning off its ears and minds. And none can say that the response is ill advised.

— John Kenneth Galbraith

Wisdom

A bad book is the worse that it cannot repent. It has not been the devil's policy to keep the masses of mankind in ignorance; but finding that they will read, he is doing all in his power to poison their books.

— John Kenneth Galbraith

Wisdom

The salary of the chief executive of a large corporation is not a market award for achievement. It is frequently in the nature of a warm personal gesture by the individual to himself.

— John Kenneth Galbraith

Success

Politics is the art of choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable.

— John Kenneth Galbraith

Wisdom

Liberalism is, I think, resurgent. One reason is that more and more people are so painfully aware of the alternative.

— John Kenneth Galbraith

Wisdom

Wealth, in even the most improbable cases, manages to convey the aspect of intelligence.

— John Kenneth Galbraith

Wisdom

More die in the United States of too much food than of too little.

— John Kenneth Galbraith

Wisdom

The conspicuously wealthy turn up urging the character building values of the privation of the poor.

— John Kenneth Galbraith

Wisdom

In the choice between changing ones mind and proving there's no need to do so, most people get busy on the proof.

— John Kenneth Galbraith

Wisdom