Economics is a subject profoundly conducive to cliche, resonant with boredom. On few topics is an American audience so practiced in turning off its ears and minds. And none can say that the response is ill advised. – John Kenneth Galbraith
If wrinkles must be written upon our brows, let them not be written upon the heart. The spirit should never grow old. – 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
In economics, hope and faith coexist with great scientific pretension and also a deep desire for respectability. – John Kenneth Galbraith
Power is not something that can be assumed or discarded at will like underwear. – 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
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
In any great organization it is far, far safer to be wrong with the majority than to be right alone. – John Kenneth Galbraith
Wealth, in even the most improbable cases, manages to convey the aspect of intelligence. – John Kenneth Galbraith
In the United States, though power corrupts, the expectation of power paralyzes. – John Kenneth Galbraith
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. – John Kenneth Galbraith
There is certainly no absolute standard of beauty. That precisely is what makes its pursuit so interesting. – John Kenneth Galbraith
Wealth is not without its advantages and the case to the contrary, although it has often been made, has never proved widely persuasive. – 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
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
There is something wonderful in seeing a wrong-headed majority assailed by truth. – 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
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
There’s a certain part of the contented majority who love anybody who is worth a billion dollars. – John Kenneth Galbraith