Democracy is based upon the conviction that there are extraordinary possibilities in ordinary people.
Interpretation
Democracy relies on the belief that everyday individuals possess remarkable potential.
This quote emphasizes the foundational idea of democracy that ordinary individuals are capable of achieving greatness and making meaningful contributions to society. It suggests that a democratic society thrives when it recognizes and nurtures the inherent potential found within all people, rather than placing value solely on exceptional individuals or elites. The conviction in the extraordinary abilities of the common person is what fuels collective progress and empowerment.
In practice
In discussions about social equity, this quote can remind us to invest in community empowerment.
Nothing else matters much...not wealth, nor learning, nor even health...without this gift: the spiritual capacity to keep zest in living. This is the creed of creeds, the final deposit and distillation of all important faiths: that you should be able to believe in life.
No one can get inner peace by pouncing on it, by vigorously willing to have it ... Peace is a consciousness of springs too deep for earthly droughts to dry up. Peace is the gift not of volitional struggle but of spiritual hospitality.
I renounce war for its consequences, for the lies it lives on and propagates, for the undying hatred it arouses, for the dictatorships it puts in place of democracy, for the starvation that stalks after it. I renounce war, and never again, directly or indirectly, will I sanction or support another.
He who cannot rest, cannot work; he who cannot let go, cannot hold on; he who cannot find footing, cannot go forward.
No horse gets anywhere until he is harnessed. No stream or gas drives anything until it is confined. No Niagara is ever turned into light and power until it is tunneled. No life ever grows great until it is focused, dedicated, disciplined.
Nothing in this world is more inspiring than a soul up against crippling circumstances who carries it off with courage and faith and undefeated character-nothing! See Light From Many Lamps, edited by L. E. Watson, article by H. E. Fosdick, pp. 93-94 re: a serious cripple who succeeded.
Sometimes one feels that it would be merciful to tear down these houses, for they must often dream.
Beauty is indeed a good gift of God; but that the good may not think it a great good, God dispenses it even to the wicked.
Men are generally more careful of the breed of their horses and dogs than of their children.
Nearly all creators of Utopia have resembled the man who has toothache, and therefore thinks happiness consists in not having toothache... Whoever tries to imagine perfection simply reveals his own emptiness.
The workman of today works every day in his life at the same tasks, and this fate is no less absurd. But it is tragic only at the rare moments when it becomes conscious.
Politics and the economy are not things that exist, or illusions, or ideologies. They are things that do not exist and yet which are inscribed in reality and fall under a regime of truth dividing the true and the false.
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