Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
Educated people tend to be pessimistic because they fear that boasting about success will invite misfortune.
In plain terms
Smart people are often sad or worried because they fear bad luck if they brag.
What can you take from it?
Humility is a safety mechanism for knowledgeable individuals.

Where it applies

  • professional settings
  • academic environments
  • personal reflection

Putting it to work

  • avoid arrogance
  • accept uncertainty

Questions to consider

  • Do you downplay your wins?
  • Is fear holding you back?

Another view

Confidence is often necessary for success despite the risks.

More from John Kenneth Galbraith

  1. When people put their ballots in the boxes, they are, by that act, inoculated against the feeling that the government is not theirs. They then accept, in some …

    Permalink to quote #34
  2. 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 tim…

    Permalink to quote #36
  3. The Metropolis should have been aborted long before it became New York, London or Tokyo.

    Permalink to quote #33

Related quotes

  1. The deepest thing in any one is the conviction of the bad luck that follows boasting.

    Gertrude SteinGertrude Stein quote #14
  2. My major hobby is teasing people who take themselves and the quality of their knowledge too seriously and those who don't have the guts to sometimes say: I don…

    Nassim Nicholas TalebNassim Nicholas Taleb quote #1
  3. Nil terribile nisi ipse timor.

    Francis BaconFrancis Bacon quote #7