While everyone else is thinking about economics and politics, executive salaries and the future of the euro, do the opposite, even if it's hard. Invest in the spirit.
Interpretation
Focus on inner growth and spirituality rather than external factors like politics and economics.
This quote emphasizes the importance of prioritizing personal and spiritual development over the external distractions of economics and politics. In a world often consumed by material and financial concerns, it encourages individuals to invest in their inner selves, suggesting that true fulfillment and resilience come from nurturing one's spirit, even when it seems challenging to do so amidst societal pressures.
In practice
During a speech about mental health, one could quote this to emphasize the importance of nurturing oneβs spirit.
Stabilizing the euro is one thing, healing the culture that surrounds it is another. A world in which material values are everything and spiritual values nothing is neither a stable state nor a good society. The time has come for us to recover the Judeo-Christian ethic of human dignity in the image of God.
Governments cannot make marriages or turn feckless individuals into responsible citizens. That needs another kind of change agent.
Jews read the books of Moses not just as history but as divine command. The question to which they are an answer is not, 'What happened?' but rather, 'How then shall I live?' And it's only with the exodus that the life of the commands really begins.
Why did God create mankind? Because God likes stories.
Find people not to envy but to admire. Do not the profitable but the admirable deed. Live by ideals.
Some years ago there was a study to discover the most stressful occupation. It turned out not to be the head of a large business, football manager or prime minister, but rather: bus driver.
He who is false to the present duty breaks a thread in the loom, and you will see the effect when the weaving of a life-time is unraveled.
I don't care whether the people believe me to be a prophet, seer, or revelator or not - I have been very profitable to this people, and I have seen a good many things, and I have revealed many things.
I have always tried to be true to myself, to pick those battles I felt were important. My ultimate responsibility is to myself. I could never be anything else.
One of the advantages of having lived a long time is that you can often remember when you had it worse. I am grateful to have lived long enough to have known some of the blessings of adversity.
Everyone complains of his memory, and nobody complains of his judgment.
I have no talents. But I do have hope. And wonder. And love. Maybe those are talents?
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