John Kenneth Galbraith quotes

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

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

— John Kenneth Galbraith

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

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

— John Kenneth Galbraith

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

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

— John Kenneth Galbraith

 quotes - Nothing is so admirable in politics as a short memory.

“Nothing is so admirable in politics as a short memory.”

— John Kenneth Galbraith

“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

“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

“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

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

— John Kenneth Galbraith

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

— John Kenneth Galbraith

“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

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

— John Kenneth Galbraith

“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

“In all life one should comfort the afflicted, but verily, also, one should afflict the comfortable, and especially when they are comfortably, contentedly, even happily wrong.”

— John Kenneth Galbraith

“In economics, the majority is always wrong.”

— John Kenneth Galbraith

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

— John Kenneth Galbraith

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

— John Kenneth Galbraith

“All successful revolutions are the kicking in of a rotten door.”

— John Kenneth Galbraith

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

— John Kenneth Galbraith

“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

“We can safely abandon the doctrine of the eighties, namely that the rich were not working because they had too little money, the poor because they had much.”

— John Kenneth Galbraith

“Humor is richly rewarding to the person who employs it. It has some value in gaining and holding attention, but it has no persuasive value at all.”

— John Kenneth Galbraith

“Few can believe that suffering, especially by others, is in vain. Anything that is disagreeable must surely have beneficial economic effects.”

— John Kenneth Galbraith

“The process by which banks create money is so simple that the mind is repelled.”

— John Kenneth Galbraith

“In any great organization it is far, far safer to be wrong with the majority than to be right alone.”

— John Kenneth Galbraith

“Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable.”

— John Kenneth Galbraith

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

— John Kenneth Galbraith

“A person buying ordinary products in a supermarket is in touch with his deepest emotions.”

— John Kenneth Galbraith

“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

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

— John Kenneth Galbraith

“People who are in a fortunate position always attribute virtue to what makes them so happy.”

— John Kenneth Galbraith