Sadness is more or less like a head cold - with patience, it passes. Depression is like cancer.
Barbara KingsolverRead
Human manners are wildly inconsistent; plenty of people have said so. But this one takes the cake: the manner in which we're allowed to steal from future generations, while commanding them not to do that to us, and rolling our eyes at anyone who is tediously PC enough to point that out. The conspicious consumption of limited resources has yet to be accepted widely as a spirtual error, or even bad manners.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote highlights the hypocrisy of current generations consuming resources irresponsibly while blaming future generations for potential consequences.
Barbara Kingsolver's quote critiques the inconsistency in human behavior regarding environmental consumption and responsibility. It points out the irony of older generations exploiting resources without foresight, while simultaneously admonishing younger generations to be cautious and considerate of future implications. The quote underscores the need for a collective acknowledgment of our moral obligations to both current and future inhabitants of the Earth, emphasizing that disregarding sustainable practices is not just imprudent but fundamentally unethical.
Themes
InheritanceResourcesResponsibilityHypocrisySustainability
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a speech about climate change to emphasize intergenerational responsibility.
More from Barbara Kingsolver
All quotes →Children can be your heartache. But that doesn't matter, you have to go on and have them . . . it works out.
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I'm of a fearsome mind to throw my arms around every living librarian who crosses my path, on behalf of the souls they never knew they saved.
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I did it to win love, and to prove myself capable. Not to move mountains. In my opinions, mountains don't move. They only look changed when you look down on them from great height.
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Memory is a complicated thing, a relative to truth, but not its twin.
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Empathy is really the opposite of spiritual meanness. It's the capacity to understand that every war is both won and lost. And that someone else's pain is as meaningful as your own.
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