The real problems of our planet are not economic or technical, they are philosophical. The philosophy of unbridled materialism is being challenged by events.
E. F. SchumacherRead
A way of life that ever more rapidly depletes the power of the Earth to sustain it and piles up ever more insoluble problems for each succeeding generation can only be called violent.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote critiques unsustainable lifestyles that harm the Earth and create problems for future generations.
E. F. Schumacher highlights the destructive impact of modern living on the environment, implying that a lifestyle which consumes resources without considering sustainability is inherently violent. This perspective calls for a profound reevaluation of our relationship with nature and the responsibilities we hold toward future generations.
Themes
SustainabilityEnvironmentFuture GenerationsViolenceResourcesProblems
In practice
Example use cases
During a speech on climate change, this quote could illustrate the urgency of adopting sustainable practices.
More from E. F. Schumacher
All quotes βThe substance of man cannot be measured by Gross National Product.
E. F. SchumacherRead
The printing press is either the greatest blessing or the greatest curse of modern times, sometimes one forgets which it is.
E. F. SchumacherRead
By means of trees, wildlife could be conserved, pollution decreased, and the beauty of our landscapes enhanced. This is the way, or at least one of the ways, to spiritual, moral, and cultural regeneration.
E. F. SchumacherRead
We still have to learn how to live peacefully, not only with our fellow men but also with nature and, above all, with those Higher Powers which have made nature and have made us; for, assuredly, we have not come about by accident and certainly have not made ourselves
E. F. SchumacherRead
The heart of the matter, as I see it, is the stark fact that world poverty is primarily a problem of two million villages, and thus a problem of two thousand million villagers.
E. F. SchumacherRead
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It was hard to reconcile the drumbeats and lifted voices in the night with my memories of flames and the screams of dying men. How could humanity range so effortlessly from the sublime to the savage and back again?
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Any black person who clings to the misguided notion that white people represent the embodiment of all that is evil and black people all that is good remains wedded to the very logic of Western metaphysical dualism that is the heart of racist binary thinking. Such thinking is not liberatory. Like the racist educational ideology it mirrors and imitates, it invites a closing of the mind.
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There are people who eat the earth and eat all the people on it like in the Bible with the locusts. And other people who stand around and watch them eat.
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Contemplation is life itself, fully awake, fully active, and fully aware that it is alive. It is spiritual wonder. It is spontaneous awe at the sacredness of life, of being. It is gratitude for life, for awareness, and for being. It is a vivid realization of the fact that life and being in us proceed from an invisible, transcendent, and infinitely abundant Source.
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Those whose life is long still strive for gain, and for all mortals all things take second place to money.
SophoclesRead