“In these matters, as often in our culture, it is far, far better to be wrong in a respectable way than to be right for the wrong reasons.”

— John Kenneth Galbraith , book The Great Crash, 1929

Source: The Great Crash, 1929 (1954 and 1997 https://openlibrary.org/books/OL25728842M/The_Great_Crash_1929), Chapter V, The Twilight of Illusion, Section VII, p. 85

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "In these matters, as often in our culture, it is far, far better to be wrong in a respectable way than to be right for …" by John Kenneth Galbraith?

John Kenneth Galbraith photo

John Kenneth Galbraith 207

American economist and diplomat 1908–2006

Related quotes

“It is far better for a man to go wrong in freedom than to go right in chains.”

Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–1895) English biologist and comparative anatomist

“Far better an approximate answer to the right question, which is often vague, than an exact answer to the wrong question, which can always be made precise.”

John Tukey (1915–2000) American mathematician

The future of data analysis. Annals of Mathematical Statistics 33 (1), (1962), page 13.
Variant: "An approximate answer to the right question is worth a great deal more than a precise answer to the wrong question." "as the renowned statistician John Tukey once reportedly said," according to Super Freakonomics page 224.

“For you often learn more by being wrong for the right reasons than you do by being right for the wrong reasons.”

Norton Juster book The Phantom Tollbooth

Source: The Phantom Tollbooth

“In any great organization it is far, far safer to be wrong with the majority than to be right alone.”

John Kenneth Galbraith (1908–2006) American economist and diplomat

The Guardian [UK] (28 July 1989)

“Somebody has said that woman's place is in the wrong. That's fine. What the wrong needs is a woman's presence and a woman's touch. She is far better equipped than men to set it right.”

James Thurber (1894–1961) American cartoonist, author, journalist, playwright

"The Duchess and the Bugs", 'Lanterns & Lances (1961).
From Lanterns and Lances‎

“Today, not starting is far, far worse than being wrong. If you start, you've got a shot at evolving and adjusting to turn your wrong into a right. But if you don't start, you never get a chance.”

Seth Godin (1960) American entrepreneur, author and public speaker

Source: Poke the Box

“To go wrong in one's own way is better than to go right in someone else's.”

Fyodor Dostoyevsky book Crime and Punishment

Source: Crime and Punishment (Zločin a trest)

“Progress in science is often built on wrong theories that are later corrected. It is better to be wrong than to be vague.”

Freeman Dyson (1923) theoretical physicist and mathematician

The Scientist As Rebel (2006)

“You would be better off having nobody than the wrong somebody. (On marrying for the wrong reasons.)”

Joyce Meyer (1943) American author and speaker

“You must never feel badly about making mistakes… as long as you take the trouble to learn from them. For you often learn more by being wrong for the right reasons than you do by being right for the wrong reasons.”

Norton Juster book The Phantom Tollbooth

Source: The Phantom Tollbooth

Related topics