John Kenneth Galbraith Quotes

Most people would sooner die than think; in fact, they do so.

Beware, all too often we say what we hear others say. We think what we are told that we think. We see what we are permitted to see. Worse, we see what we are told that we see.

When everyone thinks alike, no one is thinking clearly.

There's always something suspect about an intellectual on the winning side.

People everywhere enjoy believing things that they know are not true. It spares them the ordeal of thinking for themselves and taking responsibility for what they know.

When a man can take a poll and tell what everybody is thinking, that means nobody is really thinking anymore.

Status quo just means that everyone's doing it. It doesn't mean that this was divinely ordained, and of course this is the right decision.

Most people can't think, most of the remainder won't think, and the small fraction who do think mostly can't do it very well.

Human beings never think for themselves. For the most part, members of our species simply repeat what they are told - and become upset if they are exposed to any different view. The characteristic human trait is not awareness but conformity. We are stubborn, self-destructive conformists. Any other view of our species is just a self-congratulatory delusion.

Where all pretend to be thinking alike, it's likely that no one is thinking at all.

We all have a tendency to think that the world must conform to our prejudices. The opposite view involves some effort of thought, and most people would die sooner than think in fact they do so.

We always plan too much and always think too little. We resent a call to thinking and hate unfamiliar argument that does not tally with what we already believe or would like to believe.

To accept opinions is to gain the good solid feeling of being correct without having to think.

Doubting everything and believing everything are two equally convenient solutions that guard us from having to think

The rank and file are not philosophers, they are not educated to think for themselves, but simply to accept, unquestioned, whatever comes.

The sheep-people don't think for themselves anymore. You can say anything and it's the gospel truth and they don't have to go research it or anything, and they believe everything the news tells them. People don't go and do their own investigations if it's relationships or politics or anything.

When we blindly adopt a religion, a political system, a literary dogma, we become automatons. We cease to grow.

Everyone seems to be playing well within the boundaries of his usual rule set. I have yet to hear anyone say something that seemed likely to mitigate the idiocy of this age.

I think our Western society is very much about, 'Tuck your head in; make sure you're safe. Don't rock the boat.'

It's very scary to me that people actually think we should just follow our leaders. If we can't learn from our history, we're nowhere.

People, chained by monotony, afraid to think, clinging to certainties... they live like ants.

Human beings never think for themselves; they find it too uncomfortable. For the most part, members of our species simply repeat what they are told - and become upset if they are exposed to any different view.

While people are quick to praise the wisdom of the crowd, being an old-school journalist, I look at the wisdom of the crowd and know it can quickly turn into a mob mentality.

Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one.

A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right.