QuoteProject
The wealthiest Americans often live as though they and their children had nothing to gain from investments in education, infrastructure, clean-energy, and scientific research.
Sam Harris
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote highlights the disconnect between the wealthy and the societal investments that benefit all.

Sam Harris's quote emphasizes that many affluent Americans behave as if they are indifferent to critical societal investments such as education, infrastructure, clean energy, and scientific research. It suggests that there is a lack of awareness or a disregard for the collective benefits these investments can provide, not only for society but also for themselves and their future generations. This sentiment reflects a broader critique of the privilege that comes with wealth and its potential to create separations within society.

Themes

WealthEducationInfrastructureSocietyInvestmentsScience

In practice

Example use cases

This quote can be used in a discussion about the responsibilities of the wealthy in investing in community resources.

More from Sam Harris

Everything we do is for the purpose of altering consciousness. We form friendships so that we can feel certain emotions, like love, and avoid others, like loneliness. We eat specific foods to enjoy their fleeting presence on our tongues. We read for the pleasure of thinking another person's thoughts.
Sam HarrisRead
What I'm asking you to entertain is that there is nothing we need to believe on insufficient evidence in order to have deeply ethical and spiritual lives.
Sam HarrisRead
The core of science is not a mathematical modeling--it is intellectual honesty. It is a willingness to have our certainties about the world constrained by good evidence and good argument.
Sam HarrisRead
It is time that we admitted that faith is nothing more than the license religious people give one another to keep believing when reasons fail.
Sam HarrisRead
It is taboo in our society to criticize a persons religious faith... these taboos are offensive, deeply unreasonable, but worse than that, they are getting people killed. This is really my concern. My concern is that our religions, the diversity of our religious doctrines, is going to get us killed. I'm worried that our religious discourse- our religious beliefs are ultimately incompatible with civilization.
Sam HarrisRead
It is time that scientists and other public intellectuals observed that the contest between faith and reason is zero-sum.
Sam HarrisRead

Similar quotes

Patience patience quotes is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.
Jean-Jacques RousseauRead
Once you have a clear picture of your priorities - that is values, goals, and high leverage activities - organize around them.
Stephen CoveyRead
Find more pleasure in intelligent dissent than in passive agreement, for, if you value intelligence as you should, the former implies a deeper agreement than the latter.
Bertrand RussellRead
Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds.
William ShakespeareRead
All paths lead nowhere, so it is important to choose a path that has heart.
Carlos CastanedaRead
Idealists foolish enough to throw caution to the winds have advanced mankind and have enriched the world.
Emma GoldmanRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.

Quote by Sam Harris | QuoteProject