John Kenneth Galbraith Quotes About Politics

Quotes about: Politics

• The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.

  John Kenneth Galbraith

  Honesty, Integrity, Philosophy

  "Stop the Madness". "The Globe and Mail" Newspaper, July 6, 2002.

• Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, it's just the opposite.

  John Kenneth Galbraith

  Funny, Witty, Men

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

• Politics is the art of choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable.

  John Kenneth Galbraith

  Art, Freedom, Political

  "Don't blame Alistair Darling. He's just the brush and bucket" by Andrew Rawnsley, www.theguardian.com. July 19, 2008.

• 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.

  John Kenneth Galbraith

  Successful, Men, Doors

  John Kenneth Galbraith (2001). “The Essential Galbraith”, p.186, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

• Anyone who says he won't resign four times, will.

  John Kenneth Galbraith

  Political, Four, Politics

• In any great organization it is far, far safer to be wrong with the majority than to be right alone.

  John Kenneth Galbraith

  Organization, Political, Majority

  The Guardian, July 28, 1989.

• Nothing is so admirable in politics as a short memory.

  John Kenneth Galbraith

  Memories, Freedom, Political

• There are times in politics when you must be on the right side and lose.

  John Kenneth Galbraith

  Political, Politics, Sides

  1968 In the Observer, 11 Feb.

• From the fact of general well-being came the new position of the poor. They were now in most communities a minority. The voice of the people was now the voice of relative affluence. Politicians in pursuit of votes could be expected to have a diminishing concern for the very poor. Compassion would have to serve instead - an uncertain substitute.

  John Kenneth Galbraith

  Compassion, Voice, People

  John Kenneth Galbraith (1981). “A life in our times: memoirs”, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

• The greater the wealth the thicker will be the dirt.

  John Kenneth Galbraith

  Political, Politics, Dirt

  'The Affluent Society' (1958) ch. 18, sect. 2

• In public administration good sense would seem to require that public expectation be kept at the lowest possible level in order to minimize eventual disappointment.

  John Kenneth Galbraith

  Disappointment, Order, Expectations

  "A life in our times: memoirs".

• The experience of being disastrously wrong is salutary, no economist should be denied it, and not many are.

  John Kenneth Galbraith

  Political, Politics, Should

  John Kenneth Galbraith (1981). “A life in our times: memoirs”, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

• Foreign policy is conducted for the convenience and enjoyment of people in Washington.

  John Kenneth Galbraith

  People, Politics, Convenience

• In the old days, land was important as the giver of all things. That period is gone now. Technology and brainpower are all that matters and yet conflicts over land, specially one like on the India-China border, that yields nothing, continue. This is a burden of ancient history that we continue to carry. If tomorrow there is settlement on planet Mars, we will begin to worry if others are interested.

  John Kenneth Galbraith

  Technology, Yield, Land

• Technology, under all circumstances, leads to planning; in its higher manifestations it may put the problems of planning beyond the reach of the industrial firm. Technological compulsions, and not ideology or political will, will require the firm to seek the help and protection of the state.

  John Kenneth Galbraith

  Technology, Political Will, May

• In the usual (though certainly not in every) public decision on economic policy, the choice is between courses that are almost equally good or equally bad. It is the narrowest decisions that are most ardently debated. If the world is lucky enough to enjoy peace, it may even one day make the discovery, to the horror of doctrinaire free-enterprisers and doctrinaire planners alike, that what is called capitalism and what is called socialism are both capable of working quite well.

  John Kenneth Galbraith

  Peace, Discovery, Choices

  "Years of the Modern". Book by by J.W. Chase, 1949.

• Increasingly in recent times we have come first to identify the remedy that is most agreeable, most convenient, most in accord with major pecuniary or political interest, the one that reflects our available faculty for action; then we move from the remedy so available or desired back to a cause to which that remedy is relevant.

  John Kenneth Galbraith

  Time, Moving, Political

  "The Convenient Reverse of Logic in Our Time". Commencement address at the American University. Printed in "A View from the Stands", book by John Kenneth Galbraith, 1986.

• Economists are economical, among other things, of ideas; most make those of their graduate days do for a lifetime.

  John Kenneth Galbraith

  Wisdom, Ideas, Politics

• Liberalism is, I think, resurgent. One reason is that more and more people are so painfully aware of the alternative.

  John Kenneth Galbraith

  Thinking, People, Political

• You will find that [the] State [Department] is the kind of organisation which, though it does big things badly, does small things badly too.

  John Kenneth Galbraith

  Kindness, Government, Organization

  "High on Foggy Bottom: An Outsider's Inside View of the Government". Book by Charles Frankel, 1969.

• 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.

  John Kenneth Galbraith

  Political, Politics, Accomplished

• Some things were never meant to be recycled.

  John Kenneth Galbraith

  Politics, Recycled, Some Things Are Meant To Be

• One of my greatest pleasures in my writing has come from the thought that perhaps my work might annoy someone of comfortably pretentious position. Then comes the realization that such people rarely read.

  John Kenneth Galbraith

  Writing, People, Realization

  James K. Galbraith, Kari Levitt, Mel Watkins, John Kenneth Galbraith, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (2009). “Unconventional wisdom: lectures from the John Kenneth Galbraith prize in economics”

• One of the little-celebrated powers of Presidents (and other high government officials) is to listen to their critics with just enough sympathy to ensure their silence.

  John Kenneth Galbraith

  Sympathy, Government, Silence

  John Kenneth Galbraith (1981). “A life in our times: memoirs”, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

• There's a certain part of the contented majority who love anybody who is worth a billion dollars.

  John Kenneth Galbraith

  Love, Political, Majority

  The Guardian, May 23, 1992.

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