Canadian-
American
Economist,
Author,
Educator and
Civil Servant
(October 15,
1908 -
April 29,
2006)
"All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership."
"Faced with the choice between changing one's mind and proving there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof."
"Few people at the beginning of the nineteenth century needed an adman to tell them what they wanted."
"If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error."
"If wrinkles must be written upon our brows, let them not be written upon the heart. The spirit should never grow old."
"Meetings are indispensable when you don't want to do anything."
"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."
"Money is a singular thing. It ranks with love as man's greatest source of joy. And with death as his greatest source of anxiety. Over all history it has oppressed nearly all people in one of two ways: either it has been abundant and very unreliable, or reliable and very scarce."
"One of the best ways of avoiding necessary and even urgent tasks is to seem to be busily employed on things that are already done."
"The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable."
"A person buying ordinary products in a supermarket is in touch with his deepest emotions."
"Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, it's just the opposite."
"War remains the decisive human failure."
