QuoteProject
I feel humiliated that I live in a country that demands more already. Why do we cling to the notion that not only must we maintain the current level of consumption, but that it must continue to grow by an exponential factor of 2 to 7 percent every year?
David Suzuki
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote highlights the concern over constant economic growth and its implications on sustainability and morality.

David Suzuki's quote emphasizes the absurdity of a society that prioritizes relentless economic growth and consumerism at the expense of ethical considerations and environmental sustainability. He expresses humiliation that such demands exist and prompts reflection on the necessity and consequences of maintaining and increasing consumption rates year after year.

Themes

ConsumptionGrowthSustainabilityEnvironmentEconomics

In practice

Example use cases

This quote can be used in a speech about sustainable living to emphasize the need for change in consumption habits.

More from David Suzuki

We're in a giant car heading towards a brick wall and everyone's arguing over where they're going to sit.
David SuzukiRead
As parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts we need to start getting out into nature with the young people in our lives. Families play a key role in getting kids outside.
David SuzukiRead
One of the joys of being a grandparent is getting to see the world again through the eyes of a child.
David SuzukiRead
The medical literature tells us that the most effective ways to reduce the risk of heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes, Alzheimer's, and many more problems are through healthy diet and exercise. Our bodies have evolved to move, yet we now use the energy in oil instead of muscles to do our work.
David SuzukiRead
Do you know how much land is under ice, rock and snow? Do you know why 90 percent of us live within 100 kilometres of the U.S. border? We have this idea we're a vast country. But the reality is that a lot of it, a huge amount, is uninhabitable.
David SuzukiRead
We no longer see the world as a single entity. We've moved to cities and we think the economy is what gives us our life, that if the economy is strong we can afford garbage collection and sewage disposal and fresh food and water and electricity. We go through life thinking that money is the key to having whatever we want, without regard to what it does to the rest of the world.
David SuzukiRead

Similar quotes

The many-voiced song of the river echoed softly. Siddhartha looked into the river and saw many pictures in the flowing water. The river's voice was sorrowful. It sang with yearning and sadness, flowing towards its goal ... Siddhartha was now listening intently...to this song of a thousand voices ... then the great song of a thousand voices consisted of one word: Om - Perfection ... From that hour Siddhartha ceased to fight against his destiny.
Hermann HesseRead
You are born with a character; it is given, a gift, as the old stories say, from the guardians upon your birth...Each person enters the world called.
James HillmanRead
The provisions we have made [for our government] are such as please ourselves; they answer the substantial purposes of government and of justice, and other purposes than these should not be answered.
Thomas JeffersonRead
Nobody can tell what I suffer! But it is always so. Those who do not complain are never pitied.
Jane AustenRead
The Christian of the future will be a mystic or he will not exist at all.
Karl RahnerRead
The truth of the matter is, you die, all you do is die, and yet you live, yes you live, and that's no Harvard lie.
Jack KerouacRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.