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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
Conscience is better served by a myth.
John Kenneth Galbraith
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.
John Kenneth Galbraith
The greater the wealth the thicker will be the dirt.
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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
Economists are economical, among other things, of ideas most make those of their graduate days do for a lifetime.
John Kenneth Galbraith
Inventions that are not made, like babies that are not born, are rarely missed.
John Kenneth Galbraith
A very complicated mass of things influences the economy - the speculative effect, government policy, consumer borrowing and spending, the level of technical innovation (which I concede, although everyone emphasizes it too much), and much more - including, of course, the rate of inflation.
John Kenneth Galbraith
Ralph [ Nader] is an old friend of mine, and he does a useful job in displaying a position.
John Kenneth Galbraith
Oligopoly is an imperfect monopoly. Like the despotism of the Dual Monarchy, it is saved only by its incompetence.
John Kenneth Galbraith
Pundits forecast not because they know, but because they are asked.
John Kenneth Galbraith
Nothing is so admirable in politics as a short memory.
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Very important functions can be performed very wastefully and often are.
John Kenneth Galbraith
Only in very recent times has the average man been a source of savings.
John Kenneth Galbraith
The enemy of the conventional wisdom is not ideas but the march of events.
John Kenneth Galbraith
Technology means the systematic application of scientific or other organized knowledge to practical tasks.
John Kenneth Galbraith
Where humor is concerned there are no standards - no one can say what is good or bad, although you can be sure that everyone will.
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Economics exists to make astrology look respectable.
John Kenneth Galbraith
If all else fails immortality can always be assured by adequate error.
John Kenneth Galbraith
There was something superficial in attributing anything so awful as the Great Depression to anything so insubstantial as speculation in common stocks.
John Kenneth Galbraith
The experience of being disastrously wrong is salutary, no economist should be denied it, and not many are.
John Kenneth Galbraith
