458 Quotes by John Kenneth Galbraith

Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable.

Pundits forecast not because they know, but because they are asked.

Much of the world's work, it has been said, is done by men who do not feel quite well. Marx is a case in point.

While it will be desirable to achieve planned results, it will be even more important to avoid unplanned disasters.

No one was responsible for the great Wall Street crash. No one engineered the speculation that preceded it. Both were the product of free choice and decision of hundreds of thousands of individuals.

Few can believe that suffering, especially by others, is in vain. Anything that is disagreeable must surely have beneficial economic effects.

If a man didn't make sense, the Scotch felt it was misplaced politeness to try to keep him from knowing it. Better that he be aware of his reputation, for this would encourage reticence which goes well with stupidity.

Poverty" Pitt exclaimed "is no disgrace but it is damned annoying." In the contemporary United States it is not annoying but it is a disgrace.

The commencement speech is not, I think, a wholly satisfactory manifestation of our culture.