Quotessence
Home / Topics / Decent Life Quotes

Decent Life Quotes

Browse 37 quotes about Decent Life.

Related topics

PeopleIfsPoverty

Decent Life Quotes

“The great question for our time is, how to make sure that the continuing scientific revolution brings benefits to everybody rather than widening the gap between rich and poor. To lift up poor countries, and poor people in rich countries, from poverty, to give them a chance of a decent life, technology is not enough. Technology must be guided and driven by ethics if it is to do more than provide new toys for the rich.”

PeopleIfsGivingCountryEnoughChancePoorPovertyTechnologyRichRevolutionBenefitsEthicsDrivenLiftsOur TimeDecentGapsToysContinuingPoor PeopleRich And PoorPoor CountriesRich CountriesDecent LifeScientific RevolutionNew Toys
Author:Freeman Dyson
Create image

“What really happened in Vietnam was- all these things are away games for the American military. We're not on our home turf, which means to succeed there has to be a partner. And the definition of partnership is someone willing to risk their lives in their home area to prevail because they think it's necessary to build a decent life and a better life for their people.”

PeopleThinkingMeanHomeGamesRiskHappenedMilitaryWillingSucceedAreasDefinitionsPartnersDecentVietnamPartnershipBetter LifeTurfAmerican MilitaryDecent Life
Author:William J. Clinton
Create image

“For that reason the simple test of the slogan 'Consume Less' as a basis for social action on the environment would be to tell it to the blacks in the ghetto. The message will not be very well received for there are many people in this country who consume less than is needed to sustain a decent life.”

PeopleWellsCountryReasonWould BeActionSocialSimpleEnvironmentNeededMessagesTestsBasesDecentSlogansGhettoAffluenceSocial ActionDecent Life
Author:Barry Commoner
Create image

“I decided that I was ready to assume this position when I discovered that the chance to save the country was very meager. I was prepared to sacrifice myself for this country and its 90 million people. They want food, fuel and electricity and yearn for a decent life. Any president who does not pay attention to such details or is unable to provide the minimum level of stability should leave office.”

PeopleWantShouldDoeCountryPresidentChanceLevelsPayAttentionMillionsSacrificePositionReadyOfficeDecidedAssumingPreparedDetailsPay AttentionDecentFuelStabilityMinimumElectricityDecent Life
Author:Abdel Fattah el-Sisi
Create image

“There was no way to have a decent life and to be gay. So I was terrified that I was going to be caught, and I had already experienced quite a bit of bullying. And, you know, I just thought that only misery lay ahead, and that if I - when I got caught that would be the solution. I wish I could say that was a thing of the past. But, you know, it's not.”

IfsKnowsWayWould BePastWishBitsGaySolutionsLaysMiseryCaughtDecentBullyingTerrifiedDecent Life
Author:Cleve Jones
Create image

“You've got a generation of young men - almost all are young men - in situations of great economic hardship, where they don't really have work. The chances of them making a decent life for themselves, of making a family, living in a kind of decent, happy way, are very, very remote. It's very hard for them to ever even have that as a dream, so when people are that deprived of the ordinary hope of human beings, it creates anger. And that anger can be channeled by unscrupulous persons, whether secular or religious leaders, and there's been a lot of that.”

PeopleMenWayHumansKindPersonsHardDreamYoungReligiousChanceHuman BeingsSituationLeaderGenerationsEconomicOrdinaryYoung ManDecentHardshipSecularDeprivedReligious LeadersDecent Life
Author:Salman Rushdie
Create image

“Certainly, poverty and economic decline have a lot to do with the so-called rage of Islam. You've got all these young men in countries which are economically in bad shape. The idea that they might be able to make a good living and get married and have a family, a decent life, seems very remote to a lot of people in a lot of the world.”

PeopleMenWorldIdeasCountrySeemsMightAbleYoungPovertyEconomicShapesMarriedIslamRageYoung ManDecentDeclineGood LivingDecent Life
Author:Salman Rushdie
Create image

“For half of the world's population, roughly three billion people around the world living on less than two dollars a day, an election is at best a means, not an end; a starting point, not deliverance. These people are looking less for an "electocracy" than for the basic elements that for most of us define a decent life--food, shelter, electricity, basic health care, education for their children, and the ability to make their way through life without having to endure corruption, violence, or arbitrary power.”

PeopleWorldWayMeanChildrenTwoEndsCareThreeAbilityHalfViolenceElementsElectionDollarsEndureStartingPopulationCorruptionBillionsAround The WorldHealth CareDecentShelterElectricityArbitraryLiving OnDeliveranceStarting PointDecent Life
Book:The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream
Create image

“What was wrong with me? I had a decent life. I was healthy. I wasn't starving or maimed by a land mine or orphaned. Yet somehow, it wasn't enough. I had a hole in me, and everything I took for granted slipped through it like sand. I felt like I had swallowed yeast, like whatever evil was festering inside me had doubled in size.”

EnoughEvilFeltLandMinesHealthySizeHolesGrantedDecentSandStarvingYeastTook For GrantedDecent LifeFestering
Book:The Jodi Picoult Collection #4: Change of Heart, Handle with Care, and House Rules
Create image

“No matter how much I wanted all those things that I needed money to buy, there was some devilish current pushing me off in another direction -- toward anarchy and poverty and craziness. That maddening delusion that a man can lead a decent life without hiring himself out as a Judas Goat.”

MenMatterWantedPovertyNeededCurrentsDecentDelusionPushingAnarchyHiringGoatsCrazinessJudasDevilishDecent Life
Book:The Rum Diary: Film Tie-in Edition
Create image

“It seemed to him that in Annawadi, fortunes derived not just from what people did, or how well they did it, but from the accidents and catastrophes they dodged. A decent life was the train that hadn’t hit you, the slumlord you hadn’t offended, the malaria you hadn’t caught.”

PeopleWellsTrainFortuneCaughtAccidentsDecentCatastropheOffendedMalariaDecent Life
Book:Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death and Hope in a Mumbai Slum
Create image

“In the evaluation of the dominant moods of any historical period it is important to hold fast to the fact that there are always islands of self-sufficient order — on farms and in castles, in homes, studies, and cloisters — where sensible people manage to live relatively lusty and decent lives: as moral as they must be, as free as they may be, and as masterly as they can be. If we only knew it, this elusive arrangement is happiness.”

PeopleIfsMayHomeHappinessMoralStudyInner PeaceManageDecentFarmsSensibleArrangementsCastlesElusiveDecent LifePlaces Of Peace
Author:Erik Erikson
Create image

“A massive campaign must be launched to restore a high-quality environment in North America and to de-develop the United States...De-development means bringing our economic system (especially patterns of consumption) into line with the realities of ecology and the global resource situation...Redistribution of wealth both within and among nations is absolutely essential, if a decent life is to be provided for every human being.”

IfsHumansMeanStatesRealityAmericaLife IsNationsLinesWealthHuman BeingsUnitedQualitySituationUnited StatesEnvironmentEconomicDevelopmentEssentialsResourcesClimate ChangePatternsCampaignsDecentGlobal WarmingMassiveConsumptionEcologyNorth AmericaEconomic SystemsHigh QualityRedistribution Of WealthDecent Life
Author:John Holdren
Create image

“There is not way that you can have a decent life as a man if you aren't awake and aware every moment. Show up for your own life. Don't pass your days in a stupor, content to swallow whatever watery ideas modern society may bottle feed you through the media, satisfied to slumber through life in an instant gratification sugar coma. The most extraordinary gift you've been given is your own humanity, which is about consciousness. So honor that consciousness.”

IfsMenWayMayIdeasMomentsShowsHumanityGivenConsciousnessModernMediaHonorExtraordinarySatisfiedAwakeInstantDecentBottlesSugarGratificationModern SocietySlumberComaInstant GratificationDecent Life
Author:Eustace Conway
Create image

“We owe them [animals] a decent life and a decent death, and their lives should be as low-stress as possible. That's my job. I wish animals could have more than just a low-stress life and a quick, painless death. I wish animals could have a good life, too, with something useful to do. People were animals, too, once, and when we turned into human beings we gave something up. Being close to animals brings some of it back.”

PeopleShouldHumansJobsWishHuman BeingsAnimalLowsStressDecentGood LifePainlessDecent Life
Author:Temple Grandin
Create image

“The need for de-development presents our economists with a major challenge. They must design a stable, low-consumption economy in which there is a much more equitable distribution of wealth than in the present one. Redistribution of wealth both within and among nations is absolutely essential if a decent life is to be provided for every human being.”

IfsNeedsHumansLife IsNationsChallengesWealthHuman BeingsEconomyDesignDevelopmentEssentialsMajorsLowsDecentStableConsumptionEconomistDistributionEquitableDistribution Of WealthRedistribution Of WealthDecent Life
Author:John Holdren
Create image