John Kenneth Galbraith Quotes

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.

Oligopoly is an imperfect monopoly. Like the despotism of the Dual Monarchy, it is saved only by its incompetence.

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

But there is merit even in the mentally retarded legislator. He asks the questions that everyone is afraid to ask for fear of seeming simple.

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

If all else fails immortality can always be assured by adequate error.

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

There is certainly no absolute standard of beauty. That precisely is what makes its pursuit so interesting.

Simple minds, presumably, are the easiest to manage.

Every corner of the public psyche is canvassed by some of the most talented citizens to see if the desire for some merchandisable product can be cultivated.

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

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

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.

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

There are two kinds of forecasters: those who don’t know, and those who don’t know they don’t know.

Economic theory is the most prestigious subject of instruction and study. Agricultural economics, labor economics and marketing are lower caste fields of study.

The Metropolis should have been aborted long before it became New York, London or Tokyo.

In economics, the majority is always wrong.

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

People are the common denominator of progress; no improvement is possible with unimproved people.

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

Do not be alarmed by simplification, complexity is often a device for claiming sophistication, or for evading simple truths.

A wrong decision isn't forever; it can always be reversed. The losses from a delayed decision are forever; they can never be retrieved.

Wisdom... is often an abstraction associated not with fact or reality but with the man who asserts it and the manner of its assertion.

The problem of the modern economy is not a failure of a knowledge of economics; it's a failure of a knowledge of history.

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

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

Men have been swindled by other men on many occasions. The autumn of 1929 was, perhaps, the first occasion when men succeeded on a large scale in swindling themselves.

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

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.

Change comes not from men and women changing their minds, but from the change from one generation to the next.

Why is anything intrinsically so valueless so obviously desirable?

The commencement speech is not, I think, a wholly satisfactory manifestation of our culture.

Economists are generally negligent of their heroes.

It is almost as important to know what is not serious as to know what is.

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

All crises have involved debt that, in one fashion or another, has become dangerously out of scale in relation to the underlying means of payment.

The spirit should never grow old.

In recent times no problem has been more puzzling to thoughtful people than why, in a troubled world, we make such poor use of our affluence.

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

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

At best, in such depression times, monetary policy is a feeble reed on which to lean.

The happiest time of anyone's life is just after the first divorce.

It's great to be with William Buckley, because you don't have to think. He takes a position and you automatically take the opposite one and you know you're right.

To see economic policy as a problem of choice between rival ideologies is the greatest error of our time.

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

Modesty is a vastly overrated virtue.

In the affluent society, no useful distinction can be made between luxuries and necessities.

This is a world inhabited not by people who have to be persuaded to believe but by people who want an excuse to believe.

If you feed enough oats to the horse, some will pass through to feed the sparrows (referring to "trickle down" economics).