Money differs from an automobile or mistress in being equally important to those who have it and those who do not.

— John Kenneth Galbraith

More die in the United States of too much food than of too little

— John Kenneth Galbraith

More die in the United States of too much food than of too little.

— John Kenneth Galbraith

Much literary criticism comes from people for whom extreme specialization is a cover for either grave cerebral inadequacy or terminal laziness, the latter being a much cherished aspect of academic freedom.

— John Kenneth Galbraith

None of this excuses anyone from mastering the basic ideas and terminology of economics. The intelligent layman must expect also to encounter good economists who are difficult writers even though some of the best have been very good writers. He should know, moreover, that at least for a few great men ambiguity of expression has been a positive asset. But with these exceptions he may safely conclude that what is wholly mysterious in economics is not likely to be important.

— John Kenneth Galbraith

Nothing is so admirable in politics as a short memory.

— John Kenneth Galbraith

One of my greatest pleasures in writing has come from the thought that perhaps my work might annoy someone of comfortably pretentious position. Then comes the saddening realization that such people rarely read.

— John Kenneth Galbraith

One of the greatest pieces of economic wisdom is to know what you do not know.

— John Kenneth Galbraith

Politics is the art of choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable.

— John Kenneth Galbraith

That economics has a considerable conceptual apparatus with an appropriate terminology can not be a serious ground for complaint. Economic phenomena, ideas, instruments of analysis exist. They require names. Education in economics is, in considerable measure, an introduction to this terminology and to the ideas that it denotes. Anyone who has difficulties with the ideas should complete his education or, following an exceedingly well-beaten path, leave the subject alone. It is sometimes said that the economist has a special obligation to make himself understood because his subject is of such great and popular importance. By this rule the nuclear physicist would have to speak in monosyllables.

— John Kenneth Galbraith