Progressive societies outgrow institutions as children outgrow clothes.
Henry GeorgeRead
Everybody works but the vacant lot
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights that everyone is busy with their tasks, yet the neglected spaces in society suffer from lack of attention and care.
Henry George's quote, 'Everybody works but the vacant lot,' suggests that while individuals are engaged in their daily labor, there are areas, metaphorically represented by the 'vacant lot,' that are overlooked and neglected. This reflects a broader commentary on the human tendency to focus on productivity at the expense of addressing societal issues or fostering community development, emphasizing that work alone does not equate to progress if some spaces are left abandoned.
Themes
SocietyNeglectWorkCommunityResponsibility
In practice
Example use cases
During a community meeting discussing local development, one might say, 'As Henry George said, everybody works but the vacant lot, so we must not forget the spaces that need our attention.'
More from Henry George
All quotes →The march of invention has clothed mankind with powers of which a century ago the boldest imagination could not have dreamt.
Henry GeorgeRead
It is not the business of government to make men virtuous or religious, or to preserve the fool from the consequences of his own folly. Government should be repressive no further than is necessary to secure liberty by protecting the equal rights of each from aggression on the part of others, and the moment governmental prohibitions extend beyond this line they are in danger of defeating the very ends they are intended to serve.
Henry GeorgeRead
Poorly paid labor is inefficient labor, the world over.
Henry GeorgeRead
The protection of the masses has in all times been the pretense of tyranny - the plea of monarchy, of aristocracy, of special privilege of every kind. The slave owners justified slavery as protecting the slaves.
Henry GeorgeRead
So long as all the increased wealth which modern progress brings goes but to build up great fortunes, to increase luxury and make sharper the contrast between the House of Have and the House of Want, progress is not real and cannot be permanent.
Henry GeorgeRead
Similar quotes
What is there unreasonable in admitting the intervention of a supernatural power in the most ordinary circumstances of life?
Jules VerneRead
There are worries that seem to me sustained by the love of worry. For example, that people are reading from screens, or listening to recorded books. Why scold the impulse to enjoy language and narrative in whatever form it takes?
Marilynne RobinsonRead
We’ve got ninety-nine per cent the same genes as any other person. We’ve got ninety per cent the same as a chimpanzee. We’ve got thirty per cent the same as a lettuce. Does that cheer you up at all? I love about the lettuce. It makes me feel I belong.
Caryl ChurchillRead
The perfection of yoga is to become detached. And the perfection of detachment is to become completely attached, attached to God.
Radhanath SwamiRead
All wars are civil wars, because all men are brothers.
Francois FenelonRead
No citizen enjoys genuine freedom of religious conviction until the state is indifferent to every form of religious outlook from Atheism to Zoroastrianism.
Harold LaskiRead