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If people want consultative government, the price is increased complexity and delay in arriving at decisions. If they want speed of government, then they must accept a greater degree of authoritarianism. I suspect that the real answer is that most people prefer the latter so long, that is, as government’s decisions conform with their own views.

— John James Cowperthwaite

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More quotes by John James Cowperthwaite

We suffer a great deal today from the bogus certainties and precisions of the pseudo-sciences which include all the social sciences including economics.

An infant industry, if coddled, tends to remain an infant industry and never grows up or expands.

A glimmer of light is better than no illumination at all.

One trouble is that when Government gets into a business it tends to make it uneconomic for anyone else.

Money cannot be converted into houses or trained teachers or hospitals at the touch of a magic wand. There are limitations to our physical and intellectual resources.

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: John James Cowperthwaite (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.