“We all agree that pessimism is a mark of superior intellect.”
Intelligence
“Liberalism is, I think, resurgent. One reason is that more and more people are so painfully aware of the alternative.”
PoliticsAll Quotes by 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.”
Money“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.”
Power“Meetings are indispensable when you don't want to do anything.”
Business“Nothing is so admirable in politics as a short memory.”
Politics“There is something wonderful in seeing a wrong-headed majority assailed by truth.”
Truth“Politics is the art of choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable.”
Art“Economics is extremely useful as a form of employment for economists.”
Government“The enemy of the conventional wisdom is not ideas but the march of events.”
Wisdom“Money differs from an automobile or mistress in being equally important to those who have it and those who do not.”
Money“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.”
Great“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.”
Politics“In the United States, though power corrupts, the expectation of power paralyzes.”
Power“In any great organization it is far, far safer to be wrong with the majority than to be right alone.”
Alone“It would be foolish to suggest that government is a good custodian of aesthetic goals. But, there is no alternative to the state.”
Government“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.”
Freedom“Power is not something that can be assumed or discarded at will like underwear.”
Power“Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, it's just the opposite.”
Finance“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.”
Nature“There are times in politics when you must be on the right side and lose.”
Politics