We ... must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering for our own ease and convenience the precious resources of tomorrow.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the importance of considering the long-term consequences of our actions rather than focusing solely on immediate gratification.
Eisenhower's quote speaks to the necessity of foresight and responsibility in our daily lives. It warns against the temptation to exploit present resources for short-term benefits at the expense of future generations. This perspective urges individuals and societies to think beyond their immediate needs and to act with a sense of duty toward the future, ensuring that we do not deplete the resources that will be needed later on, ultimately advocating for sustainable choices.
In practice
This quote can be shared in an environmental seminar to highlight the importance of conservation.
If a man's associates find him guilty of being phony, if they find that he lacks forthright integrity, he will fail. His teachings and actions must square with each other. The first great need, therefore, is integrity and high purpose.
The libraries of America are and must ever remain the home of free and inquiring minds. To them, our citizens-of all ages and races, of all creeds and persuasions-must be able to turn with clear confidence that there they can freely seek the whole truth, unvarnished by fashion and uncompromised by expediency.
You don't lead by hitting people over the head - that's assault, not leadership.
When pressure mounts and strain increases everyone begins to show the weaknesses in his makeup. It is up to the Commander to conceal his: above all to conceal doubt, fear, and distrust.
Some years ago I became president of Columbia University and learned within 24 hours to be ready to speak at the drop of a hat, and I learned something more, the trustees were expected to be ready to speak at the passing of the hat.
I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity.
The man who enters his wife's dressing room is either a philosopher or a fool.
Prayer does not change God, but it changes him who prays.
The permanent temptation of life is to confuse dreams with reality. The permanent defeat of life comes when dreams are surrendered to reality.
Only in solitude do we find ourselves; and in finding ourselves, we find in ourselves all our brothers in solitude.
Those who are acquainted with the literature of India will remember a beautiful old story about this extreme charity, how a whole family, as related in the Mahâbhârata, starved themselves to death and gave their last meal to a beggar. This is not an exaggeration, for such things still happen.
All history is contemporary history.
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