John Kenneth Galbraith Quotes

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

Power, Ignorance, Bad

In economics, hope and faith coexist with great scientific pretension and also a deep desire for respectability.
John Kenneth Galbraith

Faith, Great, Hope

Modesty is a vastly overrated virtue.
John Kenneth Galbraith

Virtue, Modesty, Overrated

Money differs from an automobile or mistress in being equally important to those who have it and those who do not.
John Kenneth Galbraith

Money, Important, Mistress

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

Character, Poor, Values

There are few ironclad rules of diplomacy but to one there is no exception. When an official reports that talks were useful, it can safely be concluded that nothing was accomplished.
John Kenneth Galbraith

Nothing, Few, Rules

There's a certain part of the contented majority who love anybody who is worth a billion dollars.
John Kenneth Galbraith

Love, Worth, Anybody

War remains the decisive human failure.
John Kenneth Galbraith

War, Failure, Human

You will find that the State is the kind of organization which, though it does big things badly, does small things badly, too.
John Kenneth Galbraith

Small, Find, Big

By all but the pathologically romantic, it is now recognized that this is not the age of the small man.
John Kenneth Galbraith

Age, Romantic, Small

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

American, Off, Boredom

Few people at the beginning of the nineteenth century needed an adman to tell them what they wanted.
John Kenneth Galbraith

Wanted, Tell, Few

If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error.
John Kenneth Galbraith

Else, Error, Fails

If wrinkles must be written upon our brows, let them not be written upon the heart. The spirit should never grow old.
John Kenneth Galbraith

Heart, Old, Spirit

In any great organization it is far, far safer to be wrong with the majority than to be right alone.
John Kenneth Galbraith

Great, Alone, Wrong

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

Mind, Busy, Between

In the United States, though power corrupts, the expectation of power paralyzes.
John Kenneth Galbraith

Power, Though, United

It would be foolish to suggest that government is a good custodian of aesthetic goals. But, there is no alternative to the state.
John Kenneth Galbraith

Good, Government, State

Meetings are a great trap. Soon you find yourself trying to get agreement and then the people who disagree come to think they have a right to be persuaded. However, they are indispensable when you don't want to do anything.
John Kenneth Galbraith

Great, Yourself, Trying

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

Business, Meetings

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, Laziness, Criticism

Of all classes the rich are the most noticed and the least studied.
John Kenneth Galbraith

Rich, Noticed, Classes

One of the greatest pieces of economic wisdom is to know what you do not know.
John Kenneth Galbraith

Wisdom, Greatest, Economic

People who are in a fortunate position always attribute virtue to what makes them so happy.
John Kenneth Galbraith

Happy, Makes, Virtue

Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable.
John Kenneth Galbraith

Politics, Art, Between

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Biography

Nationality: American

Type: Economist

Born: October 15, 1908

Died: April 29, 2006

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