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.
We are 6.6 billion people now. We can only feed 4 billion. I don't see 2 billion volunteers to disappear.
I'm bothered when people don't understand that they have an obligation to use their best measure of devotion, of resources, to sacrifice for the common good.
Beyond ideas, there's a field. Will you meet me there?
I can accept anything, except what seems to be the easiest for most people: the half-way, the almost, the just-about, the in-between.
We cut nature up, organize it into concepts, and ascribe significances as we do, largely because we are parties to an agreement to organize it in this way - an agreement that holds through our speech community and is codified in the patterns of our language.
Customs do not concern themselves with right or wrong or reason. But they have to be obeyed; one reasons all around them until he is tired, but he must not transgress them, it is sternly forbidden.
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