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The questions that are beyond the reach of economics-the beauty, dignity, pleasure and durability of life-may be inconvenient but they are important.

John Kenneth Galbraith

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John Kenneth Galbraith
Age: 97 †
Born: 1908
Born: October 15
Died: 2006
Died: April 29
Diplomat
Economist
Non-Fiction Writer
Politician
University Teacher
John K. Galbraith
Reach
Beyond
Durability
Beauty
Inconvenient
Pleasure
Inquiry
May
Questioning
Important
Economics
Life
Dignity
Questions

More quotes by John Kenneth Galbraith

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Agriculture is one economic activity that does not obey the laws of demand and supply.
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The modern corporation must manufacture not only goods but the desire for the goods it manufactures.
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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.
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The greater the wealth the thicker will be the dirt.
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In the autumn of 1929 the mightiest of Americans were, for a brief time, revealed as human beings.
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Liberalism is, I think, resurgent. One reason is that more and more people are so painfully aware of the alternative.
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There are two kinds of forecasters: those who don’t know, and those who don’t know they don’t know.
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But it can be laid down as a rule that those who speak most of liberty are least inclined to use it.
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All writers know that on some golden mornings they are touched by the wand they are on intimate terms with poetry and cosmic truth. I have experienced these moments myself. Their lesson is simple: It's a total illusion. And the danger in the illusion is that you will wait for those moments.
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We now in the United States have more security guards for the rich than we have police services for the poor districts. If you're looking for personal security, far better to move to the suburbs than to pay taxes in New York.
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The power of the corporate bureaucracy - the power of technostructure (a term that did not take off) - is something to which I still adhere.
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The privileged have regularly invited their own destruction with their greed.
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Economic theory is the most prestigious subject of instruction and study. Agricultural economics, labor economics and marketing are lower caste fields of study.
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War remains the decisive human failure.
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Power is as power does.
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To see economic policy as a problem of choice between rival ideologies is the greatest error of our time.
John Kenneth Galbraith
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[Franklin Delano] Roosevelt was the central world figure in the two great disasters of this century - the Great Depression and World War II. By contrast, JFK came in relatively peaceful, agreeable times.
John Kenneth Galbraith
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The size of General Motors is in the service not of monopoly or the economies of scale but of planning.
John Kenneth Galbraith
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We live surrounded by a systematic appeal to a dream world which all mature, scientific reality would reject. We, quite literally, advertise our commitment to immaturity, mendacity and profound gullibility. It is as the hallmark of the culture. And it is justified as being economically indispensable.
John Kenneth Galbraith
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In the United States all business not transacted over the telephone is accomplished in conjunction with alcohol or food, often under conditions of advanced intoxication. This is a fact of the utmost importance for the visitor of limited funds... for it means that the most expensive restaurants are, with rare exceptions, the worst.
John Kenneth Galbraith