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
It would be foolish to suggest that government is a good custodian of aesthetic goals. But, there is no alternative to the state.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on the relationship between government and aesthetic values, suggesting that while the state may not excel in cultural matters, there is no viable substitute for its role.
John Kenneth Galbraith's quote critiques the idea that government can effectively manage or promote aesthetic goals, acknowledging that while the state is not well-suited for such tasks, it remains the only available authority to organize and direct society. This duality presents a tension between the limitations of governmental intervention in the arts and the necessity of government in societal structure, emphasizing the complexity of balancing state influence with cultural autonomy.
Themes
GovernmentAestheticCultureArtState
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the role of government funding for the arts, this quote could emphasize the limitations of such support.
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
You must make your choice: either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon; or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.
C. S. LewisRead
Jerusalem doesn't belong only to Israelis and Palestinians, Muslims and Jews, but to the world.
A. B. YehoshuaRead
It wasn't until I got to Cambridge that I discovered active discrimination against women.
Mary BeardRead
I was drawn to all the wrong things: I liked to drink, I was lazy, I didn't have a god, politics, ideas, ideals.
Charles BukowskiRead
Beauty is indeed a good gift of God; but that the good may not think it a great good, God dispenses it even to the wicked.
Saint AugustineRead
It was the darkness that got you. It was heavy darkness, greasy and compelling. It made walls round you, and shut you in so that you felt like you could not breathe.
Jean RhysRead