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
The privileged have regularly invited their own destruction with their greed.
Interpretation
Greed can lead to the downfall of those who are privileged.
John Kenneth Galbraith's quote suggests that those in positions of privilege and power often act out of greed, which can ultimately result in their own ruin. It highlights the idea that seeking excessive wealth and advantage without consideration for others can have dire consequences not only for the less fortunate but also for the privileged themselves.
In practice
This quote could be referenced during a discussion on economic inequality at a conference.
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.
For 6,000 years, these rules have been unquestionably right. And yet we break them every day. People feel that something is wrong in life. There is some kind of atmosphere that makes people now turn to other values. They want to contemplate the basic questions of life, and that is probably the real reason for wanting to tell these stories.
There is a kind of elevation which does not depend on fortune; it is a certain air which distinguishes us, and seems to destine us for great things; it is a price which we imperceptibly set upon ourselves.
It is the man who can think of no alternative to his enslavement who is truly a slave.
Imaginary evils soon become real one by indulging our reflections on them.
The classical man's worst fear was inglorious death; the modern man's worst fear is just death
It isn't until you come to a spiritual understanding of who you are - not necessarily a religious feeling, but deep down, the spirit within - that you can begin to take control.
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