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There is little that can be said about most economic goods. A toothbrush does little but clean teeth. Aspirin does little but dull pain. Alcohol is important mostly for making people more or less drunk ... There being so little to be said, much is to be invented.

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
Littles
Teeth
Toothbrushes
Little
Clean
Aspirin
Important
Economic
Invented
Much
Less
Goods
People
Pain
Mostly
Making
Alcohol
Business
Dull
Doe
Drunk
Toothbrush

More quotes by John Kenneth Galbraith

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I accept the global complex and global trade more than do some of my liberal colleagues because I consider this a wise alternative to national tension and conflict.
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If people are hungry, ill-clad, unsheltered or diseased, nothing is so important as to remedy their condition.
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The Senate has unlimited debate in the House, debate is ruthlessly circumscribed. There is frequent discussion as to which technique most effectively frustrates democratic process.
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The world of finance hails the invention of the wheel over and over again, often in a slightly more unstable version.
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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.
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I predict, not because I know, but because I'm asked.
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When people are least sure, they are often most dogmatic.
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Faced with the choice between changing one's mind and proving that there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof.
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What was needed was a policy that increased the supply of money available for use and then ensured its use. Then the state of trade would have to improve.
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Of all the mysteries of the stock exchange there is none so impenetrable as why there should be a buyer for everyone who seeks to sell.
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The modern corporation must manufacture not only goods but the desire for the goods it manufactures.
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Things that come from the private sector are in abundant supply things that depend on the public sector are widely a problem. We're a world, as I said in The Affluent Society, of filthy streets and clean houses, poor schools and expensive television.
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Complexity and obscurity have professional value - they are the academic equivalents of apprenticeship rules in the building trades. They exclude the outsiders, keep down the competition, preserve the image of a privileged or priestly class. The man who makes things clear is a scab. He is criticized less for his clarity than for his treachery.
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A businessman who reads Business Week is lost to fame. One who reads Proust is marked for greatness.
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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.
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The sense of responsibility in the financial community for the community as a whole is not small. It is nearly nil.
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In economics, the majority is always wrong.
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Almost every aspect of its (Federal Reserve) history should be approached with a discriminating disregard for what is commonly taught or believed.
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Who is king in the world of the blind when there isn't even a one eyed man?
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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.
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