Quotes from book
The Affluent Society

The Affluent Society

John Kenneth Galbraith

The Affluent Society is a 1958 book by Harvard economist John Kenneth Galbraith. The book sought to clearly outline the manner in which the post–World War II United States was becoming wealthy in the private sector but remained poor in the public sector, lacking social and physical infrastructure, and perpetuating income disparities. The book sparked much public discussion at the time. It is also credited with popularizing the term "conventional wisdom". Many of the ideas presented were later expanded and refined in Galbraith's 1967 book, The New Industrial State.

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

John Kenneth Galbraith book The Affluent Society

Source: The Affluent Society (1958), Chapter 9, Section II, p. 103

“"Poverty" Pitt exclaimed "is no disgrace but it is damned annoying." In the contemporary United States it is not annoying but it is a disgrace.”

John Kenneth Galbraith book The Affluent Society

Source: The Affluent Society (1958), Chapter 23, Section VI, p. 258

“Authorship of any sort is a fantastic indulgence of the ego. It is well no doubt, to reflect on how much one owes to others.”

John Kenneth Galbraith book The Affluent Society

Foreword p. x
The Affluent Society (1958)

“A businessman who reads Business Week is lost to fame. One who reads Proust is marked for greatness.”

John Kenneth Galbraith book The Affluent Society

Source: The Affluent Society (1958), Chapter 13, Section V, p. 155

“In recent times no problem has been more puzzling to thoughtful people than why, in a troubled world, we make such poor use of our affluence.”

John Kenneth Galbraith book The Affluent Society

Source: The Affluent Society (1958), Chapter 12, Section VII, p. 145

“Even the word depression itself was the terminological product of an effort to soften the connotation of deep trouble. In the last century, the term crisis was normally employed. With time, however, this acquired the connotation of the misfortune it described.”

John Kenneth Galbraith book The Affluent Society

Source: The Affluent Society (1958), Chapter 4, Section IV, p. 45

“Simple minds, presumably, are the easiest to manage.”

John Kenneth Galbraith book The Affluent Society

Source: The Affluent Society (1958), Chapter 19, Section V, p. 218

“Wealth is not without its advantages, and the case to the contrary, although it has often been made, has never proved widely persuasive.”

John Kenneth Galbraith book The Affluent Society

Source: The Affluent Society (1958), Chapter 1, Section I, p. 13

“The enemy of the conventional wisdom is not ideas but the march of events.”

John Kenneth Galbraith book The Affluent Society

Source: The Affluent Society (1958), Chapter 2, Section IV, p. 21

“We do not manufacture wants for goods we do not produce.”

John Kenneth Galbraith book The Affluent Society

Source: The Affluent Society (1958), Chapter 9, Section VI, p. 113

“The family which takes its mauve and cerise, air conditioned, power-steered, and power braked automobile out for a tour passes through cities that are badly paved, made hideous by litter, blighted buildings, billboards, and posts for wires that should long since have been put underground.”

John Kenneth Galbraith book The Affluent Society

Source: The Affluent Society (1958), Chapter 18, Section I, p. 199

“It is a far, far better thing to have a firm anchor in nonsense than to put out on the troubled seas of thought.”

John Kenneth Galbraith book The Affluent Society

Source: The Affluent Society (1958), Chapter 11, Section IV, p. 130

“The massive reduction in risk that is inherent in the development of the modern corporation has been far from fully appreciated.”

John Kenneth Galbraith book The Affluent Society

Source: The Affluent Society (1958), Chapter 8, Section II, p. 87

“Ideas do not respect national frontiers, and this is especially so where language and other traditions are in common.”

John Kenneth Galbraith book The Affluent Society

Source: The Affluent Society (1958), Chapter 5, Section I, p. 47

“In a community wherepublic services have failed to keep abreast of private consumption things are very different. Here, in an atmosphere of private opulence and public squalor, the private goods have full sway.”

John Kenneth Galbraith book The Affluent Society

Source: The Affluent Society (1958), Chapter 18, Section II, p. 203

“Private enterprise did not get us atomic energy.”

John Kenneth Galbraith book The Affluent Society

Source: The Affluent Society (1958), Chapter 25, Section III, p. 274

“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

“Marx profoundly affected those who did not accept his system. His influence extended to those who least supposed they were subject to it.”

John Kenneth Galbraith book The Affluent Society

Source: The Affluent Society (1958), Chapter 6, Section III, p. 63

“Ideas are inherently conservative. They yield not to the attack of other ideas but to the massive onslaught of circumstance with which they cannot contend.”

John Kenneth Galbraith book The Affluent Society

Source: The Affluent Society (1958), Chapter 2, Section VI, p. 26

“The greater the wealth the thicker will be the dirt.”

John Kenneth Galbraith book The Affluent Society

Source: The Affluent Society (1958), Chapter 18, Section II, p. 201

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