The public think the politicians don't know or care about their lives; and the politicians feel misunderstood.
Tony BlairRead
A challenge so far-reaching in its impact and irreversible in its destructive power, that it alters radically human existence... There is no doubt that the time to act is now.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the urgency of addressing significant challenges that can dramatically alter human life.
Tony Blair's quote speaks to the profound and often irreversible changes that certain challenges, particularly global issues like climate change, can impose on humanity. It underscores the necessity for immediate action, highlighting that the window to effect positive change is closing and urging us to act decisively to safeguard our future. This is a call to recognize the gravity of pressing issues and take responsibility for our role in addressing them.
In practice
In a speech about climate change, one might say, 'As Tony Blair noted, the time to act is now.'
The public think the politicians don't know or care about their lives; and the politicians feel misunderstood.
There is no meeting of minds, no point of understanding with such terror. Just a choice: Defeat it or be defeated by it. And defeat it we must.
Ask me my three main priorities for government, and I tell you: education, education and education.
However much I dislike the idea of abortion, you should not criminalize a woman who, in very difficult circumstances, makes that choice.
I want my son to grow up in a place where the people are more powerful than the government and not the other way around.
The blunt truth about the politics of climate change is that no country will want to sacrifice its economy in order to meet this challenge.
But fighting to give women and girls a fighting chance isn’t a nice thing to-do. It isn’t some luxury that we get to when we have time on our hands to spend. This is a core imperative for every human being in every society. If we do not continue the campaign for women’s rights and opportunities, the world we want to live, the country we all love and cherish, will not be what it should be.
Everyday God gives us a moment in which it is possible to change everything that makes us unhappy.
Thankfully, dreams can change. If we'd all stuck with our first dream, the world would be overrun with cowboys and princesses.
As iron cast into fire loses its rust and becomes glowing white, so he who turns completely to God is stripped of his sluggishness and changed into a new man.
Today you have to run faster to stay in place.
Let us not demand of ourselves that we alone must be the agent of change. In a fire brigade everyone passes along a bucket, but only the last person puts out the fire. None of us know where we stand in line. We may be here simply to pass a bucket; we may be called on to play a major role. In either case, all we can do is think, act, and say. Let us direct our thoughts, words, and actions to peace. That is all we can do. Let the results be what they will be.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.