“Better that the nation grow poor for a cause we can honor, than grow rich for an end that is unknown.”

— L. P. Jacks

"The Peacefulness of Being at War." in The New Republic (11 September 1915), p. 152 http://fair-use.org/the-new-republic/1915/09/11/the-peacefulness-of-being-at-war.
Context: Better that the nation grow poor for a cause we can honor, than grow rich for an end that is unknown. Who can regard without deep misgiving the process of accumulating wealth unaccompanied by a corresponding growth of knowledge as to the uses to which wealth must be applied? This is what we see in normal times, and the spectacle is profoundly disturbing. Far less disturbing at all events is that process of spending the wealth which we have now to witness.

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 "Better that the nation grow poor for a cause we can honor, than grow rich for an end that is unknown." by L. P. Jacks?

L. P. Jacks 26

British educator, philosopher, and Unitarian minister 1860–1955

Related quotes

“When nations grow old,
the Arts grow cold,
And Commerce settles on every tree:
And the poor and the old
Can live upon gold,
For all are born poor.
Aged sixty-three.”

William Blake (1757–1827) English Romantic poet and artist

On Art And Artists (1800) 'On the Foundation of the Royal Academy'
1800s

“For both the rich and the poor, life is dominated by an ever growing current of problems, most of which seem to have no real and lasting solution. Clearly we have not touched the deeper causes of our troubles.”

David Bohm (1917–1992) American theoretical physicist

Changing Consciousness (1991)
Context: For both the rich and the poor, life is dominated by an ever growing current of problems, most of which seem to have no real and lasting solution. Clearly we have not touched the deeper causes of our troubles. It is the main point of this book that the ultimate source of all these problems is in thought itself, the very thing of which our civilization is most proud, and therefore the one thing that is "hidden" because of our failure seriously to engage with its actual working in our own individual lives and in the life of society.

“As you grow up, always tell the truth, do no harm to others, and don't think you are the most important being on earth. Rich or poor, you then can look anyone in the eye and say, 'I'm probably no better than you, but I'm certainly your equal.”

Harper Lee (1926–2016) American author

“If a poor person envies a rich person, he is no better than the rich person.”

Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) Russian writer

Source: Path of Life (1909), p. 89

“There was a time when people of the rich nations of the world regarded poverty as a "natural condition" for those living in the poor nations of the world. … Today we have largely been stripped of this pseudo-innocence. We know that the poor are so poor because the rich are so rich, that the causes of poverty can be traced to deliberate decisions and deliberate economic and political policies designed to benefit the rich and powerful. We know that poverty and unemployment are not just accidents of history but deliberate, even indispensable, components of capitalism as an economic system.”

Allan Boesak (1946) South African anti-apartheid activist

Source: Comfort and Protest (1987), p. 67

“We want to achieve a new and better order of society: in this new and better society there must be neither rich nor poor; all will have to work. Not a handful of rich people, but all the working people must enjoy the fruits of their common labour. Machines and other improvements must serve to ease the work of all and not to enable a few to grow rich at the expense of millions and tens of millions of people. This new and better society is called socialist society.”

Vladimir Lenin (1870–1924) Russian politician, led the October Revolution

The teachings about this society are called socialism.
http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1903/rp/1.htm
To the Rural Poor
1903
Collected Works
6
366
Lenin
Vladimir Ilich
Marxists.
1900s

“Better a thrifty son-in-law and poor, than a glutton who is rich.”

Mateo Alemán book Guzmán de Alfarache

Pt. II, Lib. III, Ch. X.
Guzmán de Alfarache (1599-1604)

“They say it is better to be poor and happy than rich and miserable, but how about a compromise like moderately rich and just moody?”

Diana, Princess of Wales (1961–1997) First wife of Charles, Prince of Wales

"Princess Diana: 10 most inspiring quotes from the 'people's princess'", Hello Magazine, Daily News (1 July 2015)

“I would rather belong to a poor nation that was free than to a rich nation that had ceased to be in love with liberty.”

Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924) American politician, 28th president of the United States (in office from 1913 to 1921)

Address on Latin American Policy before the Southern Commercial Congress http://books.google.com/books?id=_VYEIml1cAkC&q=%22I+would+rather+belong+to+a+poor+nation+that+was+free+than+to+a+rich+nation+that+had+ceased+to+be+in+love+with+liberty%22&pg=PA20#v=onepage Mobile, Alabama (27 October 1913)
1910s

“If anything was really possible or easy to achieve, then we would all end up as employers rather than employees. Kings and not subjects. Rich and not poor.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

“Better that the nation grow poor for a cause we can honor, than grow rich for an end that is unknown.”

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

L. P. Jacks 26

Related quotes

Related topics