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“Public policy must be evaluated by its impact on the most vulnerable. When the weakest are protected, the system proves its integrity. Welfare loses meaning if dignity is compromised in its delivery.”

Last update Sept. 26, 2026. History

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“A society will be judged on the basis of how it treats its weakest members; and among the most vulnerable are surely the unborn and the dying.”

Pope John Paul II (1920–2005) 264th Pope of the Catholic Church, saint

Address to a new ambassador of New Zealand to the Holy See, 25 May 2000 <br class="br">Source: Libreria Editrice Vaticana http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/speeches/2000/apr-jun/documents/hf_jp-ii_spe_20000525_ambassador-new-zealand_en.html

“A government that compromises its competence to defend and protect the interests of the persons living under its jurisdiction betrays its raison d’être and loses its democratic legitimacy”

Alfred de Zayas (1947) American United Nations official

Report of the Independent Expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order on the adverse impacts of free trade and investment agreements on a democratic and equitable international order http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/IntOrder/Pages/Reports.aspx. <br class="br">2015, Report submitted to the UN General Assembly

“Every seed goes through the tremendous struggle of losing itself – losing its safety and integrity and becoming vulnerable to every outside force that’s around. But without that vulnerability, without the breaking, without the shedding of the shell, life won’t sprout.”

Sadhguru (1957) Yogi, mystic, visionary and humanitarian

Source: Pebbles Of Wisdom

“One of the truest tests of integrity is its blunt refusal to be compromised.”

Chinua Achebe (1930–2013) Nigerian novelist, poet, professor, and critic

“Judges are the weakest link in our system of justice and they are also the most protected.”

Alan M. Dershowitz (1938) American lawyer, author

Newsweek, 1978-02-20

“What these blessed men have given us we must guard and try to keep alive with all our strength if humanity is not to lose its dignity, the security of its existence, and its joy in living.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

Written statement (September 1937), p. 70
Attributed in posthumous publications, Albert Einstein: The Human Side (1979)
Context: Our time is distinguished by wonderful achievements in the fields of scientific understanding and the technical application of those insights. Who would not be cheered by this? But let us not forget that human knowledge and skills alone cannot lead humanity to a happy and dignified life. Humanity has every reason to place the proclaimers of high moral standards and values above the discoverers of objective truth. What humanity owes to personalities like Buddha, Moses, and Jesus ranks for me higher than all the achievements of the enquiring and constructive mind.
What these blessed men have given us we must guard and try to keep alive with all our strength if humanity is not to lose its dignity, the security of its existence, and its joy in living.

“We bring good news from a country that has not given up and shall not do so. Good news from a nation that is consolidating its democracy… a country that is building its own social model, its own welfare state by means of new formulas to protect its elders, its pensioners, its children, its young people, its women, the neediest sectors, its working class.”

Nicolás Maduro (1962) 53rd President of Venezuela

President Maduro's speech at the United Nations General Assembly (excerpts), 26 September 2018

“A system is more than the sum of its parts; it is an indivisible whole. It loses its essential properties when it is taken apart. The elements of a system may themselves be systems, and every system may be part of a larger system.”

Russell L. Ackoff (1919–2009) Scientist

Ackoff (1973) "Science in the Systems Age: beyond IE, OR and MS." in: Operations Research Vol 21, pp. 664.
1970s

“Some see danger in bigness. They fear the concentration of economic power that it brings with it. That is in a degree true. It simply means, however, that industrial management must expand its horizons of responsibility. It must recognize that it can no longer confine its activities to the mere production of goods and services. It must consider the impact of its operation on the economy as a whole in relation to the social and economic welfare of the entire community. For years I have preached this philosophy. Those charged with great industrial responsibility must become industrial statesmen.”

Alfred P. Sloan (1875–1966) American businessman

Source: "The Broadened Responsibilities of Industry's Executive," 1936, p. 358; Also in Sloan & Sparkes (1941, 145); Partly cited in: Roland Marchand (1997, p. 83)

“Any cipher can be broken, any code can be compromised. But the most exact academic knowledge of a language gives no clue to its slang, its colloquial allusions, its half statements, over statements, and inverted meanings.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Sixth Column

Source: Sixth Column (1949; originally serialized in 1941), Chapter 9 (p. 113)

“Public policy must be evaluated by its impact on the most vulnerable. When the weakest are protected, the system proves its integrity. Welfare loses meaning if dignity is compromised in its delivery.”

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