The first is the extreme brevity of the financial memory. In consequence, financial disaster is quickly forgotten. - John Kenneth Galbraith

People of privilege will always risk their complete destruction rather than surrender any material part of their advantage. Intellectual myopia, often called stupidity, is no doubt a reason. But the privileged also feel that their privileges, however egregious they may seem to others, are a solemn, basic, God-given right. The sensitivity of the poor to injustice is a trivial thing compared with that of the rich.

Faced with the choice between changing one's mind and proving that there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof.

The process by which money is created is so simply that the mind is repelled. Where something so important is involved, a deeper mystery seems only decent.