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.
Man was not made for the service of economies; economies were made to serve mankind; and men and women were made - so we believe - to serve one another, not just ourselves.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes that economies should serve humans and that people should support each other rather than focus solely on individual gain.
Jonathan Sacks articulates a profound philosophy regarding the relationship between humanity and the systems we create, such as economies. He argues that the purpose of economies is to enhance the quality of life for individuals, implying that their existence is to serve mankind rather than vice versa. Furthermore, he stresses the importance of mutual support and community, suggesting that true fulfillment comes from serving and helping one another rather than pursuing self-interest alone.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a speech about the importance of social responsibility in business.
More from Jonathan Sacks
All quotes βGovernments 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.
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In the two-room flat where I live in Japan, I try to take time every day to step away from the bombardment of e-mails and opportunities and papers around my desk, for an hour, and just sit on our 30-inch terrace in the sun, reading something sustaining, whether 'The Age of Innocence' or the latest by Colm Toibin.
You are a slave of what you need in your soul.
Our self discoveries make us each a microcosm of the larger pattern of history. The inertia of introspection leads toward recollection, for only through memory is the past recaptured and understood. In the fact of experiencing and making the present, we are all actors.
If this is the way Queen Victoria treats her prisoners, she doesn't deserve to have any.
At this time is freedom anything but the right to live as we wish? Nothing else.
It does not take a majority to prevail... but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men.