We are now heading down a centuries-long path toward increasing the productivity of our natural capital - the resource systems upon which we depend to live - instead of our human capital.
Paul HawkenRead
There is no polite way to say that business is destroying the world.
Interpretation
Business practices can have detrimental effects on the planet, and it's difficult to address this without sounding harsh.
This quote by Paul Hawken highlights the conflict between business interests and environmental sustainability. It underscores the urgent need to acknowledge that many business practices contribute to environmental degradation and social issues, and it suggests that confronting this reality may be uncomfortable or unwelcome in polite company.
In practice
This quote could be used in a speech about corporate responsibility in an environmental conference.
We are now heading down a centuries-long path toward increasing the productivity of our natural capital - the resource systems upon which we depend to live - instead of our human capital.
Inspiration is not garnered from the litanies of what may befall us; it resides in humanity's willingness to restore, redress, reform, rebuild, recover, reimagine, and reconsider.
We can no longer prosper by increasing human productivity. The more we try to do, the more poverty we will create.
At present we are stealing the future, selling it in the present, and calling it gross domestic product.
How much harm does a company have to do before we question its right to exist?
We have the capacity to create a remarkably different economy: one that can restore ecosystems and protect the environment while bringing forth innovation, prosperity, meaningful work, and true security.
Mankind will endure when the world appreciates the logic of diversity.
Man cannot live without joy; therefore when he is deprived of true spiritual joys it is necessary that he become addicted to carnal pleasures.
I consider the war of America against Britain as the country's war, the public's war, or the war of the people in their own behalf, for the security of their natural rights, and the protection of their own property.
People who give will never be poor.
What is more absurd and more impious than to attribute the name of Lucifer to the devil, that is, to personified evil. The intellectual Lucifer is the spirit of intelligence and love; it is the paraclete, it is the Holy Spirit, while the physical Lucifer is the great agent of universal magnetism.
It is computed that eleven thousand persons have at several times suffered death rather than submit to break their eggs at the smaller end.
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