QuoteProject
With the supermarket as our temple and the singing commercial as our litany, are we likely to fire the world with an irresistible vision of America's exalted purpose and inspiring way of life?
Adlai Stevenson Ii
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

This quote questions the values and priorities of society, contrasting materialism with a greater purpose.

Adlai Stevenson II's quote critiques the modern tendency to equate consumerism with a higher meaning in life. By likening supermarkets to temples and commercials to religious liturgies, he challenges us to reflect on whether such values can truly inspire a vision of America's purpose and way of life, emphasizing that a society overly focused on consumption may lack a deeper, more meaningful ideal.

Themes

ConsumerismValuesMaterialismPurposeSociety

In practice

Example use cases

During a discussion on the impact of advertising on society, this quote can emphasize the need for a more substantial purpose.

More from Adlai Stevenson Ii

A free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular.
Adlai Stevenson IiRead
There is no evil in the atom; only in men's souls.
Adlai Stevenson IiRead

Similar quotes

Forget not, never forget that you have promised me to use this silver to become an honest man.... Jean Valjean, my brother: you belong no longer to evil, but to good. It is your soul that I am buying for you. I withdraw it from dark thoughts and from the spirit of perdition, and I give it to God!
Victor HugoRead
Life, this anti-entropy, ceaselessly reloaded with energy, is a climbing force, toward order amidst chaos, toward light, among the darkness of the indefinite, toward the mystic dream of Love, between the fire which devours itself and the silence of the Cold.
Albert ClaudeRead
In any civilized society, it is every citizen's responsibility to obey just laws. But at the same time, it is every citizen's responsibility to disobey unjust laws.
Martin Luther King, Jr.Read
Salvation lies in imitating Christ, in other words, in imitating the 'withdrawal relationship' that links him with his Father... To listen to the Father's silence is to abandon oneself to his withdrawal, to conform to it.
Rene GirardRead
If you're going to do something that looks evil, don't smear it with icing and pretend it's good; just bloody well do it and keep your eyes peeled.
Robertson DaviesRead
This war proceeds along its terrible path by the slaughter of infantry...I say to myself every day. What is going on while we sit here, while we go away to dinner or home to bed? Nearly, 1000 - Englishmen, Britishers, and the other is America...Everything else is swept away.
Winston ChurchillRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.