One of the little-celebrated powers of Presidents (and other high government officials) is to listen to their critics with just enough sympathy to ensure their silence.

Quote by John Kenneth Galbraith

Topics: Government Quotes

Politics is the art of choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable.

Politics is the art of choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable.

Inflation does not lubricate trade but by rescuing traders from their errors of optimism or...

Inflation does not lubricate trade but by rescuing traders from their errors of optimism or...

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

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

Modesty is a vastly overrated virtue.

Modesty is a vastly overrated virtue.

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...

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...

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...

Economics is extremely useful as a form of employment for economists.

Economics is extremely useful as a form of employment for economists.

Food - taken to support life Wine - taken to enrichen life Food and Wine...

Food - taken to support life Wine - taken to enrichen life Food and Wine...

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...

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...

Nothing is so admirable in politics as a short memory.

Nothing is so admirable in politics as a short memory.

Where humor is concerned there are no standards - no one can say what is...

Where humor is concerned there are no standards - no one can say what is...

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.

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.

Humor is richly rewarding to the person who employs it. It has some value in...

Humor is richly rewarding to the person who employs it. It has some value in...

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...

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...

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,...

Meetings are a great trap. Soon you find yourself trying to get agreement and then...

Meetings are a great trap. Soon you find yourself trying to get agreement and then...