01UndatedUnder capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, it’s just the oppositeJohn Kenneth Galbraith / quote ↗
02UndatedWisdom, itself, is often an abstraction associated not with fact or reality but with the man who asserts it and the manner of its assertion.John Kenneth Galbraith / quote ↗
03UndatedGood writing, and this is especially important in a subject such as economics, must also involve the reader in the matter at hand. It is not enough to explain. The images that are in the mind of the writer must be made to reappear in the mind of the reader, and it is the absence of this ability that causes much economic writing to be condemned, quite properly, as abstract.John Kenneth Galbraith / quote ↗
04UndatedNone of this excuses anyone from mastering the basic ideas and terminology of economics. The intelligent layman must expect also to encounter good economists who are difficult writers even though some of the best have been very good writers. He should know, moreover, that at least for a few great men ambiguity of expression has been a positive asset. But with these exceptions he may safely conclude that what is wholly mysterious in economics is not likely to be important.John Kenneth Galbraith / quote ↗
05UndatedOne of the greatest pieces of economic wisdom is to know what you do not know.John Kenneth Galbraith / quote ↗
06UndatedI am worried about our tendency to over invest in things and under invest in people.John Kenneth Galbraith / quote ↗
07UndatedEconomics is extremely useful as a form of employment for economists.John Kenneth Galbraith / quote ↗
08UndatedBut there is merit even in the mentally retarded legislator. He asks the questions that everyone is afraid to ask for fear of seeming simple.John Kenneth Galbraith / quote ↗
09UndatedWealth, in even the most improbable cases, manages to convey the aspect of intelligence.John Kenneth Galbraith / quote ↗
10UndatedMan, at least when educated, is a pessimist. He believes it safer not to reflect on his achievements; Jove is known to strike such people down.John Kenneth Galbraith / quote ↗
11UndatedThe conventional view serves to protect us from the painful job of thinking.John Kenneth Galbraith / quote ↗
12UndatedLet it be emphasized once more, and especially to anyone inclined to a personally rewarding skepticism in these matters: for practical purposes, the financial memory should be assumed to last, at a maximum, no more than 20 years. This is normally the time it takes for the recollection of one disaster to be erased and for some variant on previous dementia to come forward to capture the financial mind. It is also the time generally required for a new generation to enter the scene, impressed, as had been its predecessors, with its own innovative genius.John Kenneth Galbraith / quote ↗
13UndatedWealth 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 / quote ↗
14UndatedWe now in the United States have more security guards for the rich than we have police services for the poor districts. If you're looking for personal security, far better to move to the suburbs than to pay taxes in New York.John Kenneth Galbraith / quote ↗
15UndatedThe man who is admired for the ingenuity of his larceny is almost always rediscovering some earlier form of fraud. The basic forms are all known, have all been practiced. The manners of capitalism improve. The morals may not.John Kenneth Galbraith / quote ↗
16UndatedIf all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error.John Kenneth Galbraith / quote ↗
17UndatedThe shortcomings of economics are not original error but uncorrected obsolescence. The obsolescence has occurred because what is convenient has become sacrosanct. Anyone who attacks such ideas must seem to be a trifle self-confident and even aggressive. The man who makes his entry by leaning against an infirm door gets an unjustified reputation for violence. Something is to be attributed to the poor state of the door.John Kenneth Galbraith / quote ↗
18UndatedMore die in the United States of too much food than of too littleJohn Kenneth Galbraith / quote ↗
21UndatedThe oldest problem in economic education is how to exclude the incompetent. A certain glib mastery of verbiage-the ability to speak portentously and sententiously about the relation of money supply to the price level-is easy for the unlearned and may even be aided by a mildly enfeebled intellect. The requirement that there be ability to master difficult models, including ones for which mathematical competence is required, is a highly useful screening device.John Kenneth Galbraith / quote ↗
22UndatedA person buying ordinary products in a supermarket is in touch with his deepest emotions.John Kenneth Galbraith / quote ↗
23UndatedThat economics has a considerable conceptual apparatus with an appropriate terminology can not be a serious ground for complaint. Economic phenomena, ideas, instruments of analysis exist. They require names. Education in economics is, in considerable measure, an introduction to this terminology and to the ideas that it denotes. Anyone who has difficulties with the ideas should complete his education or, following an exceedingly well-beaten path, leave the subject alone. It is sometimes said that the economist has a special obligation to make himself understood because his subject is of such great and popular importance. By this rule the nuclear physicist would have to speak in monosyllables.John Kenneth Galbraith / quote ↗
24UndatedIn economics, it is often professionally better to be associated with highly respectable error than uncertainly established truth.John Kenneth Galbraith / quote ↗
