Let’s face it: We are nowhere near conquering world poverty. None of us — neither the weak nor the strong, the poor nor the rich, the new nations nor the old — have yet taken seriously enough the contrast between the abundance of our opportunities and the scarcity of our actions to grasp them. It is good that the rich are getting richer — that is what economic development is for. But it is bad that despite our considerable efforts in the first half of this decade, the poor are still poor — and progressing more slowly than present-day society can tolerate.
Adlai Stevenson II (1900–1965) American politician, diplomat, statesman
Speech (1965-07-09), “Strengthening the International Development Institutions,” sec. 3, United Nations Economic and Social Council, Palais des Nations, Geneva, Switzerland
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Stevenson was serving as UN Ambassador from the United States. He died of a heart attack on 1965-07-14, while in London after this trip. This was his last public address, and was read into the Congressional Record for the House of Representatives, 89th US Congress (1965-07-15) by Rep. Abraham Multer of New York.
Quotations about:
modern world
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The upper classes lived well in the good old days. Except, of course, for the famines, the pirates, the bandits, the plagues, the shortness of life and the imminence of ever present death. And no medical treatment, no antiseptic childbirth, no hot baths, no coffee, no chocolate and no tobacco. The last four decided her on the advantages of the twentieth century.
Kerry Greenwood (b. 1954) Australian author and lawyer
Phryne Fisher, Book 16, Murder in the Dark, ch. 16 (2006)
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The book is set in 1928.
But as men grow more industrialised and regimented, the kind of delight that is common in children becomes impossible to adults because they are always thinking of the next thing and cannot let themselves be absorbed in the moment. This habit of thinking of the ‘next thing’ is more fatal to any kind of aesthetic excellence than any other habit of mind that can be imagined, and if art, in any important sense, is to survive it will not be by the foundation of solemn academies, but by recapturing the capacity for wholehearted joys and sorrows which prudence and foresight have all but destroyed.
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) English mathematician and philosopher
Lecture (1949-01-09), “The Role of Individuality,” Reith Lecture, “Authority and the Individual” No. 3, BBC Radio
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If the West is heading toward some kind of crisis, it’s worth asking ourselves a few basic questions. Modern society as we normally define it — a secular culture built around tolerance, reason, and democratic values — occupies a rather small portion of the world, and there are signs that it is shrinking. Is modernity the inexorable force of progress that we tend to assume? Is it a mere moment of human history that is fast fading? If it is something to value, how can we rediscover it, separate the good and the bad in it, make it relevant and vital?
Russell Shorto (b. 1959) American author, historian, journalist
Descartes’ Bones, Preface (2008)
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And always, in our highly regularised way of life, [the modern man] is obsessed by thoughts of the morrow. Of all the precepts in the Gospels the one that Christians have most neglected is the commandment to take no thought for the morrow. If a man is prudent, thought for the morrow will lead him to save; if he is imprudent, it will make him apprehensive of being unable to pay his debts. In either case the moment loses its savour. Everything is organised, nothing is spontaneous.
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) English mathematician and philosopher
Lecture (1949-01-09), “The Role of Individuality,” Reith Lecture, “Authority and the Individual” No. 3, BBC Radio
(Source)
We have made great advances in understanding the problem of national security in the modern world. We no longer think in terms of American resources alone. For the most part we now understand the need for a great international system of security, and we have taken the lead in building it.
Adlai Stevenson II (1900–1965) American politician, diplomat, statesman
Speech (1952-08-27), “The Nature of Patriotism,” American Legion Convention, Madison Square Garden, New York City
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“Life is like a sewer — what you get out of it depends on what you put into it.” It’s always seemed to me that this is precisely the sort of dynamic, positive thinking that we so desperately need today in these trying times of crisis and universal brouhaha.
Tom Lehrer (b. 1928) American mathematician, satirist, songwriter
Introduction to “We Will All Go Together When We Go,” An Evening (Wasted) with Tom Lehrer (1959)
If Jesus Christ were to come today, people would not even crucify Him. They would ask Him to dinner, and hear what He had to say, and make fun of it.
Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Remark (1850-01-12)
(Source)
Remark quoted by Joseph Neuberg in a letter to his sister. The letter was published in an essay (1884-08), "Carlyle and Neuberg," MacMillan's Magazine, Vol. 50. The author is not noted, but was a friend of Neuberg and his sister.
The same letter is cited in David A. Wilson, Life of Carlyle, Vol. 4 "Carlyle at His Zenith (1848-1853), ch. 10 (1927).
Never in History has the average American citizen found more need for a saving sense of humor. Beset by threats of destruction by atomic bombs, inflation, mounting taxes, overcrowded cities, witch hunters, propagandists, caterwauling commentators, and the incessant clamor of radio and television commercials, he must laugh occasionally to keep from blowing his top altogether. It’s far too easy to see only the shadows, and ignore the patches of sunlight that remain.
Bennett Cerf (1898–1971) American publisher, humorist
Laughter Incorporated, Foreword (1950)
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Even while I protest the assembly-line production of our food, our songs, our language, and eventually our souls, I know that it was a rare home that baked good bread in the old days. Mother’s cooking was with rare exceptions poor, that good unpasteurized milk touched only by flies and bits of manure crawled with bacteria, the healthy old-time life was riddled with aches, sudden death from unknown causes, and that sweet local speech I mourn was the child of illiteracy and ignorance. It is the nature of a man as he grows older, a small bridge in time, to protest against change, particularly change for the better.
John Steinbeck (1902–1968) American writer
Travels With Charley: In Search of America, Part 2 (1962)
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