John Kenneth Galbraith was an Canadian economist and public official in his life. As a leading proponent of the 20th century American liberalism movement, Galbraith was closely associated with the Democratic Party. Galbraith was a long time Harvard faculty member, spending more than half a century as a professor of economics. Here is a look at some of the most memorable John Kenneth Galbraith quotes.
“A person buying ordinary products in a supermarket is in touch with his deepest emotions.”
“All successful revolutions are the kicking in of a rotten door.”
“Economics is extremely useful as a form of employment for economists.”
“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.”
“If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error.”
“In the choice between changing ones mind and proving there’s no need to do so, most people get busy on the proof.”
“In the United States, though power corrupts, the expectation of power paralyzes.”
“It is a far, far better thing to have a firm anchor in nonsense than to put out on the troubled sea of thought.”
“It is almost as important to know what is not serious as to know what is.”
“Meetings are indispensable when you don’t want to do anything.”
“More die in the United States of too much food than of too little.”
"The #conventionalview serves to protect us from the #painfuljob of #thinking." #HappyBirthday #JohnKennethGalbraith pic.twitter.com/CEBNrq4SvM
— JJL (@THEjeffJL) October 15, 2016
“Nothing is so admirable in politics as a short memory.”
“Politics is the art of choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable.”
“The conventional view serves to protect us from the painful job of thinking.”
“The happiest time of anyone’s life is just after the first divorce.”
“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.”
“The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable.”
“Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, it’s just the opposite.”
“War remains the decisive human failure.”
“We all agree that pessimism is a mark of superior intellect.”
“Wealth, in even the most improbable cases, manages to convey the aspect of intelligence.”
“Where humor is concerned there are no standards – no one can say what is good or bad, although you can be sure that everyone will.”
“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 appears during this conversation with history to discuss the United States policy toward the Cold War in its political leadership.
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