Trust is a social good to be protected just as much as the air we breathe or the water we drink. When it is damaged, the community as a whole suffers; and when it is destroyed, societies falter and collapse
Interpretation
Trust is essential for social cohesion and must be safeguarded.
Sissela Bok's quote highlights the vital role of trust in society, likening it to fundamental resources like air and water. When trust is breached or lost, the interconnectedness of the community deteriorates, leading to broader societal issues and potential collapse, emphasizing the need for vigilance in maintaining trust among individuals and institutions.
In practice
This quote is perfect for a speech about the importance of community values.
I believe that a guarantee of public access to government information is indispensable in the long run for any democratic society.... if officials make public only what they want citizens to know, then publicity becomes a sham and accountability meaningless.
To mature is in part to realize that while complete intimacy and omniscience and power cannot be had, self-transcendence, growth, and closeness to others are nevertheless within one's reach.
Liars share with those they deceive the desire not to be deceived.
Are people the best judges of their own happiness, or outsiders? In defining happiness, should we think of entire lives or of shorter periods such as moments, days, or years? And to what extent are virtue and happiness linked?
We are all, in a sense, experts on secrecy. From earliest childhood we feel its mystery and attraction. We know both the power it confers and the burden it imposes. We learn how it can delight, give breathing space and protect.
Secrecy is as indispensable to human beings as fire, and as greatly feared.
Conventions vs. spontaneity. This is a dialectical choice, it depends on the assessment you make of your own times. If you judge that your own time is ridden with empty insincere formalities, you plump for spontaneity, for indecorous behavior even...Much of morality is the task of compensating for one's age. One assumes unfashionable virtues, in an indecorous time. In a time hollowed out by decorum, one must school oneself in spontaneity.
I must have been one of the least surprised people on earth on September 11. I felt very braced for that. I knew something like that was going to come.
The proper function of a government is to make it easy for the people to do good, and difficult for them to do evil.
The sense of tragedy - according to Aristotle - comes, ironically enough, not from the protagonist's weak points but from his good qualities. Do you know what I'm getting at? People are drawn deeper into tragedy not by their defects but by their virtues. ... [But] we accept irony through a device called metaphor. And through that we grow and become deeper human beings.
They say that a kingdom is like a pyramid: the king on top and the people below. But in this country, it's upside down.
History is at once freedom and necessity.
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