We have contingency plans for war, but none for peace.
Interpretation
We often prepare for conflict but neglect to plan for maintaining peace.
This quote highlights the tendency of societies and organizations to prioritize strategies for war and conflict, while failing to devise effective plans for achieving and sustaining peace. It suggests a critical flaw in our approach to governance and international relations, emphasizing the need for proactive measures to promote harmony and resolve disputes before they escalate into violence.
In practice
This quote could be used in a speech about foreign policy to highlight the importance of peacekeeping efforts.
Our surest protection against assault from abroad has been not all our guards, gates and guns, or even our two oceans, but our essential goodness as a people. Our richest asset has been not our material wealth but our values.
The damage done to this country by its own misconduct in the last few months and years, to its very heart and soul, is far greater and longer lasting than any damage that any terrorist could possibly inflict upon us.
Public opinion rarely considers the needs of the next generation or the history of the last. It is frequently hampered by myths and misinformation, by stereotypes and shibboleths, and by an inate resistance to innovation.
All of us, poor & rich alike, have been conditioned by our upbringings. Impoverished men & women may become lulled into a state of "learned helplessness" without hope to change their lives. Likewise, the wealthy can walk in a state of "learned blindness" ignoring the desperation of the local & global poor.
People get really scared when women reclaim words, talk about themselves honestly and also make jokes because it's a really unstoppable combination.
Action indeed is the sole medium of expression for ethics.
They can fatten me up. They can give me a full body polish, dress me up, and make me beautiful again. They can design dream weapons that come to life in my hands, but they will never again brainwash me into the necessity of using them. I no longer feel allegiance to these monsters called human beings, despite being one myself.
Of all the preposterous assumptions of humanity over humanity, nothing exceeds most of the criticisms made on the habits of the poor by the well-housed, well- warmed, and well-fed.
In saving Tibet, you save the possibility that we are all brothers, sisters.
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