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
Few people at the beginning of the nineteenth century needed an adman to tell them what they wanted.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that people were more self-aware of their needs and desires in the past than they are today.
John Kenneth Galbraith's quote reflects on the idea that in the early 1800s, individuals had a clearer understanding of their wants and needs without the influence of advertising. It implies that as society progressed, marketing began to shape peopleβs desires, leading to a dependency on external suggestions rather than self-reflection.
Themes
AdvertisingNeedsSelf-AwarenessDesireSociety
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about modern consumerism, this quote could be used to highlight how advertising shapes our preferences.
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
It is, finally, a word is untimely in three different senses, and bearing it as one's treasure will not win one anyone's favours; one rather risks finding oneself outside everyone's camp... Beauty is the word that shall be our first.
Hans Urs Von BalthasarRead
Nothing in the affairs of men is worthy of great anxiety.
PlatoRead
Life begins on the other side of despair.
Jean-Paul SartreRead
When a glass sits on a table here, people don't wonder if it's half filled or half empty. They just hope it's good beer.
Sherman AlexieRead
The man is a humbug β a vulgar, shallow, self-satisfied mind, absolutely inaccessible to the complexities and delicacies of the real world. He has the journalist's air of being a specialist in everything, of taking in all points of view and being always on the side of the angels: he merely annoys a reader who has the least experience of knowing things, of what knowing is like. There is not two pence worth of real thought or real nobility in him. But he isn't dull.
C. S. LewisRead
The fly that touches honey cannot use it's wings; so too the soul that clings to spiritual sweetness ruins it's freedom and hinders contemplation.
Sri AurobindoRead