Conscience is better served by a myth. John Kenneth Galbraith More Quotes by John Kenneth Galbraith More Quotes From John Kenneth Galbraith Inflation does not lubricate trade but by rescuing traders from their errors of optimism or stupidity. John Kenneth Galbraith optimismstupidityerrors My rule on honorary degrees has always been to have one more than Arthur Schlesinger Jr. John Kenneth Galbraith arthurdegreeseducation If it is dangerous to suppose that government is always right, it will sooner or later be awkward for public administration if most people suppose that it is always wrong. John Kenneth Galbraith awkwardgovernmentpeople What is called a high standard of living consists, in considerable measure, in arrangements for avoiding muscular energy, for increasing sensual pleasure and enhancing caloric intake above any conceivable nutritional requirement. John Kenneth Galbraith energysensualsuccess Economics exists to make astrology look respectable. John Kenneth Galbraith astrologyinvestinglooks Genius is a rising stock market. John Kenneth Galbraith investingrisinggenius The threat to men of great dignity, privilege and pretense is not from the radicals they revile; it is from accepting their own myth. Exposure to reality remains the nemesis of the great -- a little understood thing. John Kenneth Galbraith littlesmenreality Nothing in our time is more interesting than the erstwhile capitalist corporation and the erstwhile Communist firm should, under the imperatives of organization, come together as oligarchies of their own members. John Kenneth Galbraith organizationtogetherinteresting Decision has greater virtue and force if taken after there has been eloquent dissent. John Kenneth Galbraith virtuetakendecision To add to the technostructure is to increase its power in the enterprise. John Kenneth Galbraith increaseenterpriseadd The oldest problem in economic education is how to exclude the incompetent. A certain glib mastery of verbiage-the ability to speak portentously and sententiously about the relation of money supply to the price level-is easy for the unlearned and may even be aided by a mildly enfeebled intellect. The requirement that there be ability to master difficult models, including ones for which mathematical competence is required, is a highly useful screening device. John Kenneth Galbraith masterylevelsmay THE GENIUS of the industrial system lies in its organized use of capital and technology. This is made possible, as we have duly seen, by extensively replacing the market with planning. John Kenneth Galbraith technologygeniuslying There is no name for all who participate in group decision-making or the organization which they form. I propose to call this organization the Technostructure. John Kenneth Galbraith organizationdecisionnames One can relish the varied idiocy of human action during a panic to the full, for, while it is a time of great tragedy, nothing is being lost but money. John Kenneth Galbraith panictragedydepression Perhaps never before or since have so many people taken the measure of economic prospects and found them so favorable as in the two days following the Thursday [24th October 1929] disaster. John Kenneth Galbraith takentwopeople 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. John Kenneth Galbraith intelligentwritingtwo Almost every aspect of its (Federal Reserve) history should be approached with a discriminating disregard for what is commonly taught or believed. John Kenneth Galbraith investingtaughtshould Power is as power does. John Kenneth Galbraith doe The foresight of financial experts was, as so often, a poor guide to the future. John Kenneth Galbraith financialpoorexperts The seminar in economic theory conducted by Hayek at the L.S.E. in the 1930s was attended, it came to seem, by all of the economists of my generation - Nicky Kaldor , Thomas Balogh, L. K. Jah, Paul Rosenstein-Rodan, the list could be indefinitely extended. The urge to participate (and correct Hayek) was ruthlessly competitive. John Kenneth Galbraith hayekgenerationslists
