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
If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Mistakes can lead to lasting recognition if they are significant enough.
This quote suggests that even in failure, there is an opportunity for one to be remembered or achieve a form of immortality through the magnitude of their mistakes. It highlights that making a bold error can sometimes be more memorable and impactful than success, reinforcing the idea that notoriety can come from various forms of action, even if they are not traditionally viewed as positive.
Themes
ImmortalityErrorFailureRecognitionNotoriety
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be shared during a speech about overcoming failures in entrepreneurship.
More from John Kenneth Galbraith
All quotes βThe 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
Were it part of our everyday education and comment that the corporation is an instrument for the exercise of power, that it belongs to the process by which we are governed, there would then be debate on how that power is used and how it might be made subordinate to the public will and need. This debate is avoided by propagating the myth that the power does not exist.
John Kenneth GalbraithRead
Similar quotes
And indeed there will be time to wonder, 'Do I dare?', and 'Do I dare?
T. S. EliotRead
My turn shall also come: I sense the spreading of a wing.
Osip MandelstamRead
I can see, and that is why I can be happy, in what you call the dark, but which to me is golden. I can see a God-made world, not a manmade world.
Helen KellerRead
There was no time for scholarly details, and, besides, I have always believed that a man can fairly be judged by the standards and taste of his choices in matters of high-level plagiarism.
Hunter S. ThompsonRead
Having a large amount of leverage is like driving a car with a dagger on the steering wheel pointed at your heart. If you do that, you will be a better driver. There will be fewer accidents but when they happen, they will be fatal.
Warren BuffettRead
You want to cry aloud for your mistakes. But to tell the truth the world doesn't need any more of that sound.
Mary OliverRead