When we are returned to power we want to put in the statute book an act which will make our people citizens of the world before they are citizens of this country.
Clement AttleeRead
No social system will bring us happiness, health and prosperity unless it is inspired by something greater than materialism.
Interpretation
True happiness and prosperity come from ideals beyond mere material wealth.
Clement Attlee's quote highlights the importance of values and ideals that transcend material wealth in shaping a just and prosperous society. He suggests that a social system rooted only in materialism will fail to deliver true happiness and well-being, implying that meaningful human connections, purpose, and spiritual or ethical considerations are essential for a thriving community.
In practice
In a speech about community building, one might quote this to emphasize the importance of values beyond wealth.
The State is concentric, but the individual is eccentric.
Together, they would watch everything that was so carefully planned collapse, and they would smile at the beauty of destruction.
The world is emblematic. Parts of speech are metaphors, because the whole of nature is a metaphor of the human mind.
The world to me was a secret, which I desired to discover; to her it was a vacancy, which she sought to people with imaginations of her own.
It felt to me like America was always wanting to resolve things too quickly, without thinking through what the costs and consequences would be and how that affects an individual living in that world. Then as I grew up and went about my life, I think I just got more and more interested in that gray area where things are not so easily quantified.
It is inaccurate to say that I hate everything. I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty, and common decency. This makes me forever ineligible for public office.
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