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
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.
In practice
This quote is perfect to inspire a group discussion on societal norms.
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.
If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error.
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.
All successful revolutions are the kicking in of a rotten door.
Money differs from an automobile or mistress in being equally important to those who have it and those who do not.
People of privilege will always risk their complete destruction rather than surrender any material part of their advantage.
Compare society to a boat. Her progress through the water will not depend upon the exertion of her crew, but upon the exertion devoted to propelling her. This will be lessened by any expenditure of force in fighting among themselves, or in pulling in different directions.
He knew how to say many false things that were like true sayings.
Those who were unlucky in life in spite of their skills would eventually rise. The lucky fool might have benefited from some luck in life; over the longer run he would slowly converge to the state of a less-lucky idiot. Each one would revert to his long-term properties.
So the universe is not quite as you thought it was. You'd better rearrange your beliefs, then. Because you certainly can't rearrange the universe.
There either is or is not, thatβs the way things are. The colour of the day. The way it felt to be a child. The saltwater on your sunburnt legs. Sometimes the water is yellow, sometimes itβs red. But what colour it may be in memory, depends on the day. Iβm not going to tell you the story the way it happened. Iβm going to tell it the way I remember it.
Total oblivion is the fate of almost everything in this world. I'm very likely to suffer that same fate; my work will probably not be remembered, and if any of it is, if any of those novels is fated to be one of those novels that is still being read 50 or 100 years after it was written, I've probably already written it.
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