Commencement oratory must eschew anything that smacks of partisan politics, political preference, sex, religion or unduly firm opinion. Nonetheless, there must be a speech: Speeches in our culture are the vacuum that fills a vacuum.

Quote by John Kenneth Galbraith

Topics: Politics Quotes, Speech Quotes

We have escapist fiction, so why not escapist biography?

We have escapist fiction, so why not escapist biography?

If it is dangerous to suppose that government is always right, it will sooner or...

If it is dangerous to suppose that government is always right, it will sooner or...

In central banking as in diplomacy, style, conservative tailoring, and an easy association with the...

In central banking as in diplomacy, style, conservative tailoring, and an easy association with the...

The great dialectic in our time is not, as anciently and by some still supposed,...

The great dialectic in our time is not, as anciently and by some still supposed,...

All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness...

All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness...

The contented and economically comfortable have a very discriminating view of government. Nobody is ever...

The contented and economically comfortable have a very discriminating view of government. Nobody is ever...

People who are in a fortunate position always attribute virtue to what makes them so...

People who are in a fortunate position always attribute virtue to what makes them so...

The process by which banks create money is so simple that the mind is repelled.

The process by which banks create money is so simple that the mind is repelled.

A person buying ordinary products in a supermarket is in touch with his deepest emotions.

A person buying ordinary products in a supermarket is in touch with his deepest emotions.

Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous...

Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous...

In the choice between changing ones mind and proving there's no need to do so,...

In the choice between changing ones mind and proving there's no need to do so,...

In economics, the majority is always wrong.

In economics, the majority is always wrong.

When people put their ballots in the boxes, they are, by that act, inoculated against...

When people put their ballots in the boxes, they are, by that act, inoculated against...

There is certainly no absolute standard of beauty. That precisely is what makes its pursuit...

There is certainly no absolute standard of beauty. That precisely is what makes its pursuit...

Economics is a subject profoundly conducive to cliche, resonant with boredom. On few topics is...

Economics is a subject profoundly conducive to cliche, resonant with boredom. On few topics is...

Faced with the choice between changing one's mind and proving that there is no need...

Faced with the choice between changing one's mind and proving that there is no need...

War remains the decisive human failure.

War remains the decisive human failure.

There are few ironclad rules of diplomacy but to one there is no exception. When...

There are few ironclad rules of diplomacy but to one there is no exception. When...

To say nothing, especially when speaking, is half the art of diplomacy.

To say nothing, especially when speaking, is half the art of diplomacy.

There is no diplomacy like candor.

There is no diplomacy like candor.