It is an unfortunate human failing that a full pocketbook often groans more loudly than an empty stomach.
Interpretation
People often prioritize wealth over basic human needs, revealing a flaw in human nature.
This quote by Franklin D. Roosevelt highlights a critical observation about human beings and society; it suggests that material wealth tends to be prioritized and given more attention than the fundamental needs of survival, such as food. It reflects the notion that individuals may tend to complain more about their financial status than about the suffering that comes from hunger, revealing a deeper commentary on values and societal priorities.
In practice
In a speech about social priorities, one might say, 'As Franklin D. Roosevelt mentioned, it is an unfortunate human failing that a full pocketbook often groans more loudly than an empty stomach, reminding us to focus on fundamental human needs.'
There has been one persistent theme through all Axis propaganda. This theme has been that Americans are admittedly rich, that Americans have considerable industrial power - but that Americans are soft and decadent, that they cannot and will not unite and work and fight. ... Let them tell that to the Marines!
The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.
A war of ideas can no more be won without books than a naval war can be won without ships. Books, like ships, have the toughest armor, the longest cruising range, and mount the most powerful guns.
Better the occasional faults of a government that lives in a spirit of charity than the consistent omissions of a government frozen in the ice of its own indifference.
Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds.
A world turned into a stereotype, a society converted into a regiment, a life translated into a routine, make it difficult for either art or artists to survive. Crush individuality in society and you crush art as well. Nourish the conditions of a free life and you nourish the arts, too.
This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival. Welcome and entertain them all!
Many words and expressions which only a matter of decades ago were considered so distastefully explicit that, were they merely to be breathed in public, the perpetrator would be shunned, barred from polite society, and in extreme cases shot through the lungs, are now thought to be very healthy and proper, and their use in everyday speech and writing is evidence of a well-adjusted, relaxed and totally un****ed-up personality.
The visionary is the only realist.
In social policy, when we provide a safety net, it should be designed to help people take more entrepreneurial risks, not to turn them into dependents. This doesn't mean that we should be callous to the underprivileged.
Capitalism is not the system of the past; it is the system of the future -- if mankind is to have a future
All bad precedents begin as justifiable measures.
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