John Kenneth Galbraith Quotes

Security is when everything is settled, when nothing can happen to you; security is the denial of life.

I guess I crave stability.

We can be absolutely certain only about things we do not understand.

People want security in this insecure world.

People like definite decisions, / Tidy answers, all the little ravelings / Snipped off, the lint removed, they / Hop happily among their roughs / Calling what they can't clutch insanity / Or saintliness.

Ignorance never settles a question.

Nothing is so firmly believed as that which we least know.

Doubt is the offspring of knowledge: the savage never doubts at all.

Vulgarized knowledge characteristically gives birth to a feeling that everything is understandable and explained. It is like a system of bridges built over chasms. One can travel boldly ahead over these bridges, ignoring the chasms. It is forbidden to look down into them; but that, alas, does not alter the fact that they exist.

As long as everyone around me is comfortable and we have a roof over our heads and we're eating, then it's fine and I can go off and do whatever I want.

I've always had to work to feel reassured, to feel secure, and that's not nice because you don't know where you stand.

I'm a simple man; I like to stick to what I know.

Human beings desire comfort and familiarity.

Premature certainty is the enemy of the truth.

It is... easy to be certain. One has only to be sufficiently vague.

The mind will ever be unstable that has only prejudices to rest on.

I am no lover of disorder and doubt as such. Rather do I fear to lose truth by this pretension to possess it already wholly.

To be absolutely certain about something, one must know everything or nothing about it.

There has to be certainty and there has to be clarity. There can't be ambiguity, .. This has to be certain, clear in all respects from all the parties so nobody is in any doubt about what the future holds.

Where there is clarity, there is no choice. And where there is choice, there is misery. But then, why should I speak, since I know nothing?

They never played games with each other, they never had tow worry where they stood, because if either of them had a moment of wavering, the other would say I love you and would mean it and all doubts were forgiven because in this one case it was found that love conquers all.

Nothing's as good as holding on to safety.

The more I see, the less I know.

The truth, she found, felt smooth, like a skipping stone in the palm of your hand.