One of the little-celebrated powers of Presidents (and other high government officials) is to listen to their critics with just enough sympathy to ensure their silence.
John Kenneth GalbraithRead
People are the common denominator of progress. So no improvement is possible with unimproved people, and advance is certain when people are liberated and educated. It would be wrong to dismiss the importance of roads, railroads, power plants, mills,and the other familiar furniture of economic development. But we are coming to realize that there is a certain sterility in economic monuments that stand alone in a sea of illiteracy. Conquest of illiteracy comes first.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes that progress relies on the improvement of people through education and literacy rather than just infrastructure.
John Kenneth Galbraith highlights the importance of human development as the foundation of societal progress. While physical advancements like infrastructure are necessary, they become ineffective without educated individuals who can utilize them. The quote suggests that literacy and education are the keys to unlocking true economic and social progress, stressing that without improvement in the populace, advancements in technology and infrastructure are superficial and ineffective.
Themes
EducationProgressLiteracyImprovementEconomic Development
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a seminar about the importance of education in community development.
More from John Kenneth Galbraith
All quotes →If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error.
John Kenneth GalbraithRead
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 GalbraithRead
All successful revolutions are the kicking in of a rotten door.
John Kenneth GalbraithRead
Money differs from an automobile or mistress in being equally important to those who have it and those who do not.
John Kenneth GalbraithRead
People of privilege will always risk their complete destruction rather than surrender any material part of their advantage.
John Kenneth GalbraithRead
Similar quotes
For every child prodigy that you know about, at least 50 potential ones have burned out before you even heard about them.
Itzhak PerlmanRead
Through my education, I didn't just develop skills, I didn't just develop the ability to learn, but I developed confidence.
Michelle ObamaRead
Books are good company, in sad times and happy times, for books are people-- people who have managed to stay alive by hiding between the covers of a book.
E. B. WhiteRead
We give people fish. We teach them to fish. We tear down the walls that have been built up around the fish pond. And we figure out who polluted it.
Shane ClaiborneRead
It's a failure of national vision when you regard children as weapons, and talents as materials you can mine, assay, and fabricate for profit and defense.
John HerseyRead
If you are reading in order to become a better reader, you cannot read just any book or article. You will not improve as a reader if all you read are books that are well within your capacity. You must tackle books that are beyond you, or, as we have said, books that are over your head. Only books of that sort will make you stretch your mind. And unless you stretch, you will not learn.
Mortimer AdlerRead