A biography for John Kenneth Galbraithhasn’t been written yet.
“We have escapist fiction, so why not escapist biography?”
“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.”
“All successful revolutions are the kicking in of a rotten door.”
“Modesty is a vastly overrated virtue.”
“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.”
“There are few ironclad rules of diplomacy but to one there is no exception. When an official reports that talks were useful, it can safely be concluded that nothing was accomplished.”
“Wealth, in even the most improbable cases, manages to convey the aspect of intelligence.”
“Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, it's just the opposite.”
“Nothing is so admirable in politics as a short memory.”
“Humor is richly rewarding to the person who employs it. It has some value in gaining and holding attention, but it has no persuasive value at all.”
“Money differs from an automobile or mistress in being equally important to those who have it and those who do not.”
“Meetings are a great trap. Soon you find yourself trying to get agreement and then the people who disagree come to think they have a right to be persuaded. However, they are indispensable when you don't want to do anything.”
“It has been the acknowledged right of every Marxist scholar to read into Marx the particular meaning that he himself prefers and to treat all others with indignation.”
“The enemy of the conventional wisdom is not ideas but the march of events.”