John Kenneth Galbraith: Man

John Kenneth Galbraith was American economist and diplomat. Explore interesting quotes on man.
John Kenneth Galbraith: 414 quotes1 like

“The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.”

John Kenneth Galbraith

“Stop the Madness,” Interview with Rupert Cornwell, Toronto Globe and Mail (6 July 2002) (see http://wist.info/galbraith-john-kenneth/7463/ )

“Under capitalism, man exploits man; while under socialism just the reverse is true.”

John Kenneth Galbraith

Source: A Life in Our Times

“Few things in life can be so appalling as the difference between a dry antiseptic statement of a principle by a well spoken man in a quiet office, and what happens to people when that principle is put into practice.”

John Kenneth Galbraith

BBC TV Adaptation, Episode 1
The Age of Uncertainty (1977)

“Any consideration of the life and larger social existence of the modern corporate man… begins and also largely ends with the effect of one all-embracing force. That is organization — the highly structured assemblage of men, and now some women, of which he is a part. It is to this, at the expense of family, friends, sex, recreation and sometimes health and effective control of alcoholic intake, that he is expected to devote his energies.”

John Kenneth Galbraith

"Corporate Man," The New York Times (22 January 1984)

“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

Source: The Age of Uncertainty (1977), Chapter 6, p. 161

“Man, at least when educated, is a pessimist. He believes it safer not to reflect on his achievements; Jove is known to strike such people down.”

John Kenneth Galbraith

Source: The Age of Uncertainty (1977), Chapter 12, p. 324

“Our political life favors the extremes of speech; the man who is gifted in the arts of abuse is bound to be a notable, if not always a great figure.”

John Kenneth Galbraith book The Great Crash, 1929

Chapter VI https://openlibrary.org/books/OL25728842M/The_Great_Crash_1929, Things Become More Serious, Section II, p 110 <br class="br">The Great Crash, 1929 (1954 and 1997 https://openlibrary.org/books/OL25728842M/The_Great_Crash_1929)

“Only in very recent times has the average man been a source of savings.”

John Kenneth Galbraith book The New Industrial State

Source: The New Industrial State (1967), Chapter IV, Section 2, p. 37

“Men meet together for many reasons in the course of business. They need to instruct or persuade each other. They must agree on a course of action. They find thinking in public more productive or less painful than thinking in private. But there are at least as many reasons for meetings to transact no business. Meetings are held because men seek companionship or, at a minimum, wish to escape the tedium of solitary duties. They yearn for the prestige which accrues to the man who presides over meetings, and this leads them to convoke assemblages over which they can preside. Finally, there is the meeting which is called not because there is business to be done, but because it is necessary to create the impression that business is being done. Such meetings are more than a substitute for action. They are widely regarded as action.”

John Kenneth Galbraith book The Great Crash, 1929

Chapter VII https://openlibrary.org/books/OL25728842M/The_Great_Crash_1929, Aftermath I, Section IV, p 139 <br class="br">The Great Crash, 1929 (1954 and 1997 https://openlibrary.org/books/OL25728842M/The_Great_Crash_1929)

“One man's consumption becomes his neighbor's wish.”

John Kenneth Galbraith book The Affluent Society

Source: The Affluent Society (1958), Chapter 11, Section II, p. 125

“The man who is admired for the ingenuity of his larceny is almost always rediscovering some earlier form of fraud. The basic forms are all known, have all been practiced. The manners of capitalism improve. The morals may not.”

John Kenneth Galbraith

Source: The Age of Uncertainty (1977), Chapter 2, p. 75

“Who is king in the world of the blind when there isn't even a one eyed man?”

John Kenneth Galbraith

Source: The Age of Uncertainty (1977), Chapter 6, p. 180

“To the man who held stock on margin, disaster had only one face and that was falling prices. But now prices were to be allowed to fall. The speculator's only comfort, henceforth, was that his ruin would be accomplished in an orderly and becoming manner.”

John Kenneth Galbraith book The Great Crash, 1929

The Great Crash, 1929 (1954 and 1997 https://openlibrary.org/books/OL25728842M/The_Great_Crash_1929) <br class="br">Source: Chapter VI https://openlibrary.org/books/OL25728842M/The_Great_Crash_1929, Things Become More Serious, Section II, p 110

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

John Kenneth Galbraith book The New Industrial State

Source: The New Industrial State (1967), Chapter III, Section 5, p. 32

“If a man be subject to the authority of another, he can at least ask that it not be an occasion for glee.”

John Kenneth Galbraith book The New Industrial State

Source: The New Industrial State (1967), Chapter XXV, Section 2, p. 293 (1985)