All 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.

— John Kenneth Galbraith

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.

— John Kenneth Galbraith

By all but the pathologically romantic, it is now recognized that this is not the age of the small man.

— John Kenneth Galbraith

Economics is extremely useful as a form of employment for economists.

— John Kenneth Galbraith

Economists are generally negligent of their heroes.

— John Kenneth Galbraith

Good writing, and this is especially important in a subject such as economics, must also involve the reader in the matter at hand. It is not enough to explain. The images that are in the mind of the writer must be made to reappear in the mind of the reader, and it is the absence of this ability that causes much economic writing to be condemned, quite properly, as abstract.

— John Kenneth Galbraith

Humor is richly rewarding to the person who employs it. It has some value in gaining and holding attention, but it has no persuasive value at all.

— John Kenneth Galbraith

I am worried about our tendency to overinvest in things and underinvest in people.

— John Kenneth Galbraith

If all else fails immortality can always be assured by spectacular error.

— John Kenneth Galbraith

If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error.

— John Kenneth Galbraith