Painterly cushioned armchair facing a bare wooden chair across a crack in a grey floor.

Original artwork, not a still

John Kenneth Galbraith

In all life one should comfort the afflicted, but verily, also, one should afflict the comfortable, and especially when they are comfortably, contentedly, even happily wrong.

Behind the line

What it means

Our interpretation.

Galbraith says kindness to the suffering isn't the whole job. Someone should also unsettle people who feel cozy in their mistakes. His sting is in the last part: being happily wrong is exactly when a jolt is needed.

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