John Kenneth Galbraith Quotes

We have no strategy. It is the government that sets the strategy. All we can do it try and figure out what the government will do.

We're obviously in speculation territory here, because we don't know what the Trump administration is going to do.

The challenge has been, we make policy in the world of politics.

Politics, you will observe, is the science of guessing right.

I know that Congress will do the right thing.

The representative system of government is calculated to produce the wisest laws, by collecting wisdom where it can be found.

Whatever happens in a government could have happened differently, and it usually would have been better if it had.

I was a very senior minister in the Howard government and I sat around this particular table [in the prime ministerial office] in many discussions. The difference between being a senior minister and the prime minister is that ultimately the buck does stop with the prime minister and in the end the prime minister has to make those critical judgement calls and that's the big difference.

Almost every thing, especially of governmental policy, is an inseparable compound of the two [good and evil].

We have zero strategic thinking out of our White House. And we have a national security structure that has lost its way when it comes to strategic thinking and strategic decision-making.

American public opinion, as you can see in the polls, radically changed from being against airstrikes to being heavily in favor that [President Obama] decided to do airstrikes. This is a classic example of leading from behind where he waits for public opinion. And now it's the public who's demanding he do something.

You don't know you're going to get a 'No' until you ask, and if you don't ask, you've given yourself the No.

It is doubtful that the government knows much more than the public does about how government [Economic] policies will work.

Because many of us make mistakes that can have bad consequences, some intellectuals believe that it is the role of government to intervene and make some of our decisions for us. From what galaxy government is going to hire creatures who do not make mistakes is a question they leave unanswered.

After we have thought out everything carefully in advance and have sought and found without prejudice the most plausible plan, we must not be ready to abandon it at the slightest provocation. should this certainty be lacking, we must tell ourselves that nothing is accomplished in warfare without daring; that the nature of war certainly does not let us see at all times where we are going; that what is probable will always be probable though at the moment it may not seem so; and finally, that we cannot be readily ruined by a single error, if we have made reasonable preparations.

Donald Trump hasn't decided, and most importantly, we don't know if the old rules still apply.

If you don't know what to play, play nothing.

I know what to do with my life. I just don't know what to do with this one night.

The American people have now spoken, but it's going to take a little while to determine what they've said.

Donald Trump doesn't have a plan. But he does have dangerous ideas.

We must, therefore, be confident that the general measures we have adopted will produce the results we expect. most important in this connection is the trust which we must have in our lieutenants. consequently, it is important to choose men on whom we can rely and to put aside all other considerations. if we have made appropriate preparations, taking into account all possible misfortunes, so that we shall not be lost immediately if they occur, we must boldly advance into the shadows of uncertainty.

When men know not what to do, they ought not to do they know not what

Whenever I don’t know whether to fight or not, I fight.

When I get the point, I often don't know what to do with it.

I do not always know what I want, but I do know what I don't want.