Governments cannot make marriages or turn feckless individuals into responsible citizens. That needs another kind of change agent.
Interpretation
Governments cannot create successful marriages or make irresponsible people responsible; real change requires a different approach.
This quote emphasizes that while governments can provide structures and regulations, they cannot directly influence the personal relationships or moral character of individuals. True transformation in relationships and personal responsibility requires inner change facilitated by different agents, such as community, family, or personal growth initiatives.
In practice
In a discussion about social issues, one might say, 'As Jonathan Sacks noted, governments cannot make marriages or turn feckless individuals into responsible citizens.'
Stabilizing the euro is one thing, healing the culture that surrounds it is another. A world in which material values are everything and spiritual values nothing is neither a stable state nor a good society. The time has come for us to recover the Judeo-Christian ethic of human dignity in the image of God.
Jews read the books of Moses not just as history but as divine command. The question to which they are an answer is not, 'What happened?' but rather, 'How then shall I live?' And it's only with the exodus that the life of the commands really begins.
Why did God create mankind? Because God likes stories.
Find people not to envy but to admire. Do not the profitable but the admirable deed. Live by ideals.
Some years ago there was a study to discover the most stressful occupation. It turned out not to be the head of a large business, football manager or prime minister, but rather: bus driver.
The Holocaust survivors are among the most inspiring people I have had the privilege to meet.
There are moments when the heart is generous, and then it knows that for better or worse our lives are woven together here, one with one another and with the place and all the living things.
He wanted to tell her that everything he had done he had done because he was broken, because watching her die had destroyed him, but there was no way to say it that didnβt sound like he was trying to pin the blame outside himself
There are few couples as unhappy as those who are too proud to admit their unhappiness.
When a Cat adopts you, and I am not superstitious at all I don't mean only Black cats there is nothing to be done about it except to put up with it and wait until the wind changes.
Even though many couples are choosing to marry later in life, our laws haven't been updated to address dating partner abuse.
Today is my anniversary of ordination to the priesthood. Please pray for me and all priests.
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