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I Quotes

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All I Quotes

“I think we have got to start again and go right back to first principles. The argument I shall advance, surprising as it may seem coming from the author of the earlier chapters, is that, for an understanding of the evolution of modern man, we must begin by throwing out the gene as the sole basis of our ideas on evolution. If there is only one Creator who made the tiger and the lamb, the cheetah and the gazelle, what is He playing at? Is he a sadist who enjoys spectator blood sports? ... Is he manuvering to maximize David Attenborough's television ratings?”

“I think we have lost our way when people like the [board of] governors and the CEO of the NYSE fail to realize they have a duty to the rest of us to act as exemplars... You do not want your first-grade school teacher to be fornicating on the floor or drinking booze in the classroom; similarly you do not want your stock exchange to be setting the wrong moral example.”

“I think we have not done a good job of explaining to people in rural America what is actually happening, number one. And, number two, we're not expressing appreciation and acknowledging the contribution that rural America makes. Where does your food come from? Where does the water come from? Where does the energy feedstock come from? It all comes from rural areas. Where does your military come from? Nearly 35 to 40 percent of the military is from 15 percent of America's population living in rural America. It makes a tremendous contribution to this country. It just isn't recognized.”

“I think we have powerful role-models among us in the American West. Certainly the Hopis, a timeless civilization that understands sustainability and what that means about living in harmony, in tandem with the natural world. We have much to learn from them, and they will survive us, I feel certain about that.”

“I think we have put a lot of emphasis on, of course, material wellbeing. By human economic betterment we mean material betterment. That’s economic enterprise, and that’s what Adam Smith worked out in his second book. But the first book had to do with human social betterment—all the things we do to make our lives better because we grow up in a social world. We learn in growing up that some actions are hurtful to others and they resent it, and some actions are beneficial to others, and they feel good about that and they tend to reward the beneficial actions. Those two sources account for a lot of the norms that we live by. Also, Adam Smith understood that—and I think this is remarkable—he understood that the downside was potentially far greater than the upside. So there is a fundamental asymmetry between gain and loss. And he didn’t just postulate that; he derived it from the idea there is an asymmetry between our joy and our sorrow. He got it from more fundamental considerations. Psychologists did not discover that until some 150 to 200 years later.”

“I think we have reached a stage now where we need to find solutions to economic injustice in the same place and in the same ways that we find solutions to sustainability. Sustainability on environmental grounds and justice in terms of everyone having a place in the production and consumption system - these are two aspects of the same issue. They have been artificially separated and have to be put back again in the Western way of thinking.”

“I think we have to acknowledge that people are different and succeed at different things, first of all. Men are better than women at some professions like firefighting, construction work, and physics. But women are better than men at some professions, too, like elementary teaching, prostitution, and giving birth. Who's to say which is more important?”

“I think we have to be active in teaching our children, and teaching each other. We have to be active about kindness and about peace. I've always fantasized that it would be great if there was a Department of Peace. We have a military, but what if there was a department devoted entirely and truthfully to finding peaceful resolutions?”