Envy, propelled by fear, can be even more toxic than anger, because it involves the thought that other people enjoy the good things of life which the envier can't hope to attain through hard work and emulation.
Martha NussbaumRead
I find so often, you know, just on a very mundane level; you've got a meeting and your child's acting in a school play. You can't do both things. And it's not simply that you can't do both, but whatever you do, you're going to be neglecting something that's really important.
Interpretation
What this quote means
You can't do everything at once, and important aspects of life may be neglected in the process.
Martha Nussbaum emphasizes the challenges of balancing responsibilities, particularly between work and family. She points out that in our busy lives, there are moments where choices must be made, and often those choices involve prioritizing one commitment over another, which can lead to neglecting what truly matters, such as family and personal relationships.
Themes
BalanceNeglectResponsibilityCommitmentPrioritization
In practice
Example use cases
During a parent-teacher meeting, a mother might quote this to describe her struggle between professional duties and family obligations.
More from Martha Nussbaum
All quotes βThis is true across every single society; we project grossness onto a racial or gender subgroup or caste. A big part of social subordination and discrimination is to ascribe hyper-animality to other groups and use that as an excuse for subordinating them further.
Martha NussbaumRead
Often, we feel helpless in lots of situations in our lives. The way anger gets a grip on us is it seems to be a way to extricate ourselves from helplessness.
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Courses in the humanities, in particular, often seem impractical, but they are vital, because they stretch your imagination and challenge your mind to become more responsive, more critical, bigger.
Martha NussbaumRead
Look at the great tradition of Western political philosophy. Those people were all immersed in revolutionary movements. Most weren't career academics - often, they were too radical to be accepted in the academy. Rousseau's books were banned. Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill couldn't hold academic positions because they were atheists.
Martha NussbaumRead
There is no reason why an American scholar cannot by himself or herself develop an adequate understanding of another culture. And I don't find any reason to suppose that the birth within a culture automatically confers understanding.
Martha NussbaumRead
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