Faced with the choice between changing one's mind and proving that there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof.

Quote by John Kenneth Galbraith

Topics: John Kenneth Galbraith Quotes

Liberalism is, I think, resurgent. One reason is that more and more people are so...

Liberalism is, I think, resurgent. One reason is that more and more people are so...

Modesty is a vastly overrated virtue.

Modesty is a vastly overrated virtue.

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...

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...

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...

Money differs from an automobile or mistress in being equally important to those who have...

Money differs from an automobile or mistress in being equally important to those who have...

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

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

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...

We can safely abandon the doctrine of the eighties, namely that the rich were not...

We can safely abandon the doctrine of the eighties, namely that the rich were not...

The commencement speech is not, I think, a wholly satisfactory manifestation of our culture.

The commencement speech is not, I think, a wholly satisfactory manifestation of our culture.

Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, it's just the opposite.

Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, it's just the opposite.

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,...

What is called a high standard of living consists, in considerable measure, in arrangements for...

What is called a high standard of living consists, in considerable measure, in arrangements for...

The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable.

The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable.

Few things are more tempting to a writer than to repeat, admiringly, what he has...

Few things are more tempting to a writer than to repeat, admiringly, what he has...

It would be foolish to suggest that government is a good custodian of aesthetic goals....

It would be foolish to suggest that government is a good custodian of aesthetic goals....

Meetings are indispensable when you don't want to do anything.

Meetings are indispensable when you don't want to do anything.

In any great organization it is far, far safer to be wrong with the majority...

In any great organization it is far, far safer to be wrong with the majority...

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

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

Few people at the beginning of the nineteenth century needed an adman to tell them...

Few people at the beginning of the nineteenth century needed an adman to tell them...