We have a tendency to condemn people who are different from us, to define their sins as paramount and our own sinfulness as being insignificant.
Interpretation
This quote highlights the human tendency to judge others harshly while downplaying our own faults.
In this quote, Jimmy Carter points out a common psychological behavior where individuals are quick to criticize and condemn those who are different or hold differing views. This habit often stems from a lack of self-awareness or an unwillingness to confront our own imperfections. By recognizing this tendency, we can move towards a more empathetic and understanding society, fostering acceptance rather than division.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech about promoting tolerance in multicultural societies.
Acknowledging the physical realities of our planet does not mean a dismal future of endless sacrifice. In fact, acknowledging these realities is the first step in dealing with them. We can meet the resource problems of the world - water, food, minerals, farmlands, forests, overpopulation, pollution - if we tackle them with courage and foresight.
The preeminent obstacle to peace is Israel's colonization of Palestine.
I would say the biggest handicap we have right now is some nutcases in our country that don't believe in global warming. I think they are going to change their position because of pressure from individuals, because the evidence of the ravages of global warming is already there.
If I were president, I'd be very glad to see the Palestinians have a nation recognized by the United Nations. There's no downside to it.
My understanding of racial discrimination as a child was highly distorted because the most prominent man in Archery was an African-American bishop. When he came home from up north, where he was in charge of A.M.E. churches in five states, it was front-page news. He was the most successful man in my life.
Our American values are not luxuries but necessities, not the salt in our bread, but the bread itself. Our common vision of a free and just society is our greatest source of cohesion at home and strength abroad, greater than the bounty of our material blessings.
When everything that matters can be bought and sold, when commitments can be broken because they are no longer to our advantage, when shopping becomes salvation and advertising slogans become our litany, when our worth is measured by how much we earn and spend, then the market is destroying the very virtues on which in the long run it depends.
The state tends to expand in proportion to its means of existence and to live beyond its means, and these are, in the last analysis, nothing but the substance of the people. Woe to the people that cannot limit the sphere of action of the state! Freedom, private enterprise, wealth, happiness, independence, personal dignity, all vanish.
We have more and more ways to communicate, as Thoreau noted, but less and less to say.
It is in dialogue with pain that many beautiful things acquire their value. Acquaintance with grief turns out to be one of the more unusual prerequisites of architectural appreciation. We might, quite aside from all other requirements, need to be a little sad before buildings can properly touch us.
Our national myths often exaggerate the role of the individual heroes and understate the importance of collective effort.
I've told my children that when I die, to release balloons in the sky to celebrate that I graduated. For me, death is a graduation.
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