458 Quotes by John Kenneth Galbraith

Men have been swindled by other men on many occasions. The autumn of 1929 was, perhaps, the first occasion when men succeeded on a large scale in swindling themselves.

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.

But now, as throughout history, financial capacity and political perspicacity are inversely correlated.

There is little that can be said about most economic goods. A toothbrush does little but clean teeth. Aspirin does little but dull pain. Alcohol is important mostly for making people more or less drunk ... There being so little to be said, much is to be invented.

Increasingly in recent times we have come first to identify the remedy that is most agreeable, most convenient, most in accord with major pecuniary or political interest, the one that reflects our available faculty for action; then we move from the remedy so available or desired back to a cause to which that remedy is relevant.

I predict, not because I know, but because I'm asked.

Banking may well be a career from which no man really recovers.

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

I react to what is necessary. I would like to eschew any formula.