“We cannot afford the luxury of cynicism or even pessimism in our reaction to climate change. The situation is too serious. We must tackle it head on – and immediately.”

— Lewis Pugh

Speaking & Features, My African Dream: Faith Rally Address, COP17

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "We cannot afford the luxury of cynicism or even pessimism in our reaction to climate change. The situation is too serio…" by Lewis Pugh?

Lewis Pugh 69

Environmental campaigner, maritime lawyer and endurance swi… 1969

Related quotes

“Are we ready to believe in the power of our own voices? Are we ready to cast aside our fear and cynicism? Are we ready to work our hearts out to make our dream a reality? Are we ready to overcome? If we are truly ready, then now is the time. This one’s on us. We cannot afford to wait. We cannot afford to doubt. We cannot afford to make excuses. We have this moment of opportunity. And we need to seize it.”

Michelle Obama (1964) lawyer, writer, wife of Barack Obama and former First Lady of the United States

2000s, A Challenge to Overcome (November 2007)

“We cannot sit back and hope that everything works out for the best. We cannot afford to be tired or frustrated or cynical.”

Michelle Obama (1964) lawyer, writer, wife of Barack Obama and former First Lady of the United States

2010s, 2016 Democratic National Convention (2016)

“I cannot afford the luxury of sentiment, mine must be cold logic.”

George Marshall (1880–1959) US military leader, Army Chief of Staff

Quoted from George Marshall: Defender of the Republic

“The immediate reaction of the poets who fought in the war was cynicism…”

Stephen Spender (1909–1995) English poet and man of letters

The Struggle of the Modern (1963)
Context: The immediate reaction of the poets who fought in the war was cynicism... The war dramatized for them the contrast between the still-idealistic young, living and dying on the unalteringly horrible stage-set of the Western front, with the complacency of the old at home, the staff officers behind the lines. In England there was violent anti-German feeling; but for the poet-soldiers the men in the trenches on both sides seemed united in pacific feelings and hatred of those at home who had sent them out to kill each other.

“I can’t afford the luxury of despair or pessimism. We still have to hope. We’re a timeless people, we’ve lived in a timeless land. We have suffered the invasion of two hundred years, and we’ll go on suffering. But we are going to survive.”

Oodgeroo Noonuccal (1920–1993) Aboriginal Australian poet, artist, teacher and campaigner for Indigenous rights

On the Aboriginal people in “‘Recording the Cries of the People’: AN INTERVIEW WITH OODGEROO (KATH WALKER)” http://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1725&context=kunapipi in Kunapipi (1988)