458 Quotes by John Kenneth Galbraith

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

It takes a certain brashness to attack the accepted economic legendsbut noneat all toperpetuatethem. So theyare perpetuated.

I am for a close global association in trade and financial matters, rather than the opposite possibility of excessive nationalism, as manifested in the two world wars.

I write with two things in mind. I want to be right with my fellow economists. After all, I've made my life as a professional economist, so I'm careful that my economics is as it should be. But I have long felt that there's no economic proposition that can't be stated in clear, accessible language. So I try to be right with my fellow economists, but I try to have an audience of any interested, intelligent person.

There are few ironclad rules of diplomacy but to one there is no exception. When an official reports that talks were useful, it can safely be concluded that nothing was accomplished.

Of all the weapons in the Federal Reserve arsenal, words were the the most unpredictable in their consequences.

A bad book is the worse that it cannot repent. It has not been the devil's policy to keep the masses of mankind in ignorance; but finding that they will read, he is doing all in his power to poison their books.

Any country that has Milton Friedman as an adviser has nothing to fear from a few million Arabs.

There's no question that in my lifetime, the contrast between what I called private affluence and public squalor has become very much greater.