John Kenneth Galbraith
John Kenneth Galbraith
John Kenneth "Ken" Galbraith, OCwas a Canadianeconomist, public official, and diplomat, and a leading proponent of 20th-century American liberalism. His books on economic topics were bestsellers from the 1950s through the 2000s, during which time Galbraith fulfilled the role of public intellectual. As an economist, he leaned toward Post-Keynesian economics from an institutionalist perspective...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionEconomist
Date of Birth15 October 1908
CountryUnited States of America
John Kenneth Galbraith quotes about
Only men of considerable vanity write books; consistently therewith, I worried lest the world were exchanging an irreplaceable author for a more easily purchased diplomat.
All writers know that on some golden mornings they are touched by the wand; they are on intimate terms with poetry and cosmic truth. I have experienced these moments myself. Their lesson is simple: It's a total illusion. And the danger in the illusion is that you will wait for those moments.
Modesty is a vastly overrated virtue.
Money differs from an automobile or mistress in being equally important to those who have it and those who do not.
There's a certain part of the contented majority who love anybody who is worth a billion dollars.
You will find that the State is the kind of organization which, though it does big things badly, does small things badly, too.
In economics it is a far, far wiser thing to be right than to be consistent
No intelligence system can predict what a government will do if it doesn't know itself.
I was brought up in southwestern Ontario where we were taught that Canadian patriotism should not withstand anything more than a five-dollar-a-month wage differential. Anything more than that and you went to Detroit.
But now, as throughout history, financial capacity and political perspicacity are inversely correlated.
I predict, not because I know, but because I'm asked.
I react to what is necessary. I would like to eschew any formula.
We all agree that pessimism is a mark of superior intellect.
No nice philosophical point has ever been so decisively resolved as this: that those who are not conceived do not miss the pleasure of consuming the goods they do not get born to enjoy.