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I predict, not because I know, but because I'm asked.

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
Predict
Asked

More quotes by John Kenneth Galbraith

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I've long believed alas, that in highly organized industrial societies, capitalist or socialist, the stronger tendency is to converge - that if steel or automobiles are wanted and must be made on a large scale, the process will stamp its imprint on the society, whether that me be Magnitogorsk or Gary, Indiana.
John Kenneth Galbraith
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Talk of revolution is one of avoiding reality.
John Kenneth Galbraith
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Faced with having to change our views or prove that there is no need to do so, most of us immediately get busy on the proof.
John Kenneth Galbraith
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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.
John Kenneth Galbraith
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Educators have yet to realize how deeply the industrial system is dependent upon them.
John Kenneth Galbraith
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Men are, in fact, either sustained by organization or they sustain organization.
John Kenneth Galbraith
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Agriculture is one economic activity that does not obey the laws of demand and supply.
John Kenneth Galbraith
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A more important antidote to American democracy is American gerontocracy. The positions of eminence and authority in Congress are allotted in accordance with length of service, regardless of quality.
John Kenneth Galbraith
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I react to what is necessary. I would like to eschew any formula.
John Kenneth Galbraith
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Money is a singular thing. It ranks with love as man's greatest source of joy. And with death as his greatest source of anxiety. Over all history it has oppressed nearly all people in one of two ways: either it has been abundant and very unreliable, or reliable and very scarce.
John Kenneth Galbraith
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A wrong decision isn't forever it can always be reversed. The losses from a delayed decision are forever they can never be retrieved.
John Kenneth Galbraith
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I think the role of the Federal Reserve is enormously exaggerated.
John Kenneth Galbraith
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American university presidents are a nervous breed I have never thought well of them as a class.
John Kenneth Galbraith
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All, the intelligent and stupid, diligent and idle, have been swept along on a current of increased output that, in the usual case, owed nothing whatever to their efforts.
John Kenneth Galbraith
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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.
John Kenneth Galbraith
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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
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A drastic reduction in weapons competition following a general release from the commitment to the Cold War would be sharply in conflict with the needs of the industrial system.
John Kenneth Galbraith
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A good rule of conversation is never answer a foolish question.
John Kenneth Galbraith
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Who is king in the world of the blind when there isn't even a one eyed man?
John Kenneth Galbraith
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Because of his compassion Owen was always in trouble with his partners. They would have much preferred a tough, down-to-earth manager who would get a days work out of the little bastards.
John Kenneth Galbraith