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.

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

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

War remains the decisive human failure.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

There are times in politics when you must be on the right side and lose.

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

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

War remains the decisive human failure.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

The enemy of the conventional wisdom is not ideas but the march of events.

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

War remains the decisive human failure.

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

Nothing is so admirable in politics as a short memory.

Wealth is not without its advantages and the case to the contrary, although it has often been made, has never proved widely persuasive.

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

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