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Quotes from The Age of Uncertainty — John Kenneth Galbraith

1908–2006 Canada

← All quotes by John Kenneth Galbraith

27 quotes

American university presidents are a nervous breed; I have never thought well of them as a class.

The Age of Uncertainty (1977)

Man, 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.

The Age of Uncertainty (1977)

Who is king in the world of the blind when there isn't even a one eyed man?

The Age of Uncertainty (1977)

Because of his compassion Owen was always in trouble with his partners. They would have much preferred a tough, down-to-earth manager who would get a days work out of the little bastards.

The Age of Uncertainty (1977)

It's a rule worth having in mind. Income almost always flows along the same axis as power but in the opposite direction.

The Age of Uncertainty (1977)

If inheritance qualifies one for office, intelligence cannot be a requirement.

The Age of Uncertainty (1977)

The privileged have regularly invited their own destruction with their greed.

The Age of Uncertainty (1977)

Of all classes the rich are the most noticed and the least studied.

The Age of Uncertainty (1977)

Economists are generally negligent of their heroes.

The Age of Uncertainty (1977)

But there is merit even in the mentally retarded legislator. He asks the questions that everyone is afraid to ask for fear of seeming simple.

The Age of Uncertainty (1977)

Do not be alarmed by simplification, complexity is often a device for claiming sophistication, or for evading simple truths.

The Age of Uncertainty (1977)

All successful revolutions are the kicking in of a rotten door. The violence of revolutions is the violence of men who charge into a vacuum.

The Age of Uncertainty (1977)

The Metropolis should have been aborted long before it becameNew York, London or Tokyo.

The Age of Uncertainty (1977)

Ideas may be superior to vested interest. They are also very often the children of vested interest.

The Age of Uncertainty (1977)

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

The Age of Uncertainty (1977)

Economics is not an exact science.

The Age of Uncertainty (1977)

The myth that holds that the great corporation is the puppet of the market, the powerless servant of the consumer, is, in fact one of the devices by which its power is perpetuated.

The Age of Uncertainty (1977)

All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership.

The Age of Uncertainty (1977)

Conscience is better served by a myth.

The Age of Uncertainty (1977)

Few things in life can be so appalling as the difference between a dry antiseptic statement of a principle by a well spoken man in a quiet office, and what happens to people when that principle is put into practice.

The Age of Uncertainty (1977)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: John Kenneth Galbraith (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.