The public think the politicians don't know or care about their lives; and the politicians feel misunderstood.
Tony BlairRead
Sometimes it is better to lose and do the right thing than to win and do the wrong thing.
Interpretation
Choosing integrity over success is often more valuable than winning through unethical means.
This quote emphasizes the importance of ethical conduct and integrity in decision-making. It suggests that winning may not be worthwhile if it involves compromising one's values and doing the wrong thing, highlighting that moral integrity is paramount even when faced with the temptation of victory.
In practice
In a team meeting discussing project ethics, one could use this quote to stress the importance of integrity.
The public think the politicians don't know or care about their lives; and the politicians feel misunderstood.
There is no meeting of minds, no point of understanding with such terror. Just a choice: Defeat it or be defeated by it. And defeat it we must.
Ask me my three main priorities for government, and I tell you: education, education and education.
However much I dislike the idea of abortion, you should not criminalize a woman who, in very difficult circumstances, makes that choice.
I want my son to grow up in a place where the people are more powerful than the government and not the other way around.
The blunt truth about the politics of climate change is that no country will want to sacrifice its economy in order to meet this challenge.
Perhaps life is actually more confusing and unknowable to an adult than a child, but grown-ups have learned to deceive themselves and act as if they understand what's going on; and some are elected to high office on the basis of their ability to create this impression.
Look at your hand. Its structure does not match the structure of assertions, the structure of facts. Your hand is continuous. Assertions and facts are discontinuous.... You lift your index finger half an inch; it passes through a million facts. Look at the way your hand goes on and on, while the clock ticks, and the sun moves a little further across the sky.
The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.
Fantasy flows in where fact leaves a vacuum.
Working at the Food Bank with my kids is an eye-opener. The face of hunger isn't the bum on the street drinking Sterno; it's the working poor. They don't look any different, they don't behave any differently, they're not really any less educated. They are incredibly less privileged, and that's it.
Unless we establish some form of world government, it will not be possible for us to avert a World War III in the future.
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