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
No society ever seems to have succumbed to boredom. Man has developed an obvious capacity for surviving the pompous reiteration of the commonplace.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that societies have a remarkable ability to endure boredom and mundane repetition over time.
John Kenneth Galbraith highlights the human capacity to adapt to and survive through the monotony of everyday life. Despite the repetitive nature of social experiences, people find ways to cope with and even thrive amidst the ordinary, indicating resilience and the ability to overlook the tedious aspects of existence.
Themes
SocietyBoredomResilienceAdaptationCommonplace
In practice
Example use cases
This quote is perfect to inspire a group discussion on societal norms.
More from John Kenneth Galbraith
All quotes βIf 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
The philosopher is Nature's pilot. And there you have our difference: to be in hell is to drift: to be in heaven is to steer.
George Bernard ShawRead
Whatever man prays for, he prays for a miracle. Every prayer reduces itself.
Ivan TurgenevRead
...the scientific attitude implies what I call the postulate of objectivity-that is to say, the fundamental postulate that there is no plan, that there is no intention in the universe. Now, this is basically incompatible with virtually all the religious or metaphysical systems whatever, all of which try to show that there is some sort of harmony between man and the universe and that man is a product-predictable if not indispensable-of the evolution of the universe.
Jacques MonodRead
Like the generations of leaves, the lives of mortal men. Now the wind scatters the old leaves across the earth, now the living timber bursts with the new buds and spring comes round again. And so with men: as one generation comes to life, another dies away.
HomerRead
Itβs never quite right, all the things we are taught, all the loves we chase, all the deaths we die, all the lives we live.
Charles BukowskiRead
Freedom is the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.
George OrwellRead