All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership. John Kenneth Galbraith on leadership
Money differs from an automobile or mistress in being equally important to those who have it and those who do not. John Kenneth Galbraith on money
We can safely abandon the doctrine of the eighties, namely that the rich were not working because they had too little money, the poor because they had much. John Kenneth Galbraith on money
The process by which banks create money is so simple that the mind is repelled. John Kenneth Galbraith on money
The salary of the chief executive of a large corporation is not a market award for achievement. It is frequently in the nature of a warm personal gesture by the individual to himself. John Kenneth Galbraith on nature
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith on politics
Politics is the art of choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable. John Kenneth Galbraith on politics
Liberalism is, I think, resurgent. One reason is that more and more people are so painfully aware of the alternative. John Kenneth Galbraith on politics
Nothing is so admirable in politics as a short memory. John Kenneth Galbraith on politics
Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable. John Kenneth Galbraith on politics
There are times in politics when you must be on the right side and lose. John Kenneth Galbraith on politics
A bad book is the worse that it cannot repent. It has not been the devil's policy to keep the masses of mankind in ignorance but finding that they will read, he is doing all in his power to poison their books. John Kenneth Galbraith on power
Power is not something that can be assumed or discarded at will like underwear. John Kenneth Galbraith on power
In the United States, though power corrupts, the expectation of power paralyzes. John Kenneth Galbraith on power
By all but the pathologically romantic, it is now recognized that this is not the age of the small man. John Kenneth Galbraith on romantic
All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership. John Kenneth Galbraith on time
There is something wonderful in seeing a wrong-headed majority assailed by truth. John Kenneth Galbraith on truth