People are needed to take up the challenge, strong people, who proclaim the truth, throw it in people's faces, and do what they can with their own two hands.
What I would say to the young men and women who are beset by hopelessness and doubt is that they should go and see what is being done on the ground to fight poverty, not like going to the zoo but to take action, to open their hearts and their consciences.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Take action to help others, especially those who are suffering from poverty and hopelessness.
Abbe Pierre's quote encourages young individuals facing hopelessness and doubt to engage actively in the fight against poverty. Rather than viewing poverty from a distance as one might observe animals in a zoo, he calls for genuine involvement that comes from compassion and moral responsibility, urging them to open their hearts and consciences to the plight of others.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech at a youth conference, I might say, 'What I would say to the young men and women who are beset by hopelessness and doubt is that they should go and see what is being done on the ground to fight poverty.'
More from Abbe Pierre
All quotes →Similar quotes
In my own constituency, the benefit cap has had the effect of social cleansing: of people receiving benefit, but the benefit is capped; therefore, they can't meet the rent levels charged and are forced to move. It's devastating for children, devastating for the family and very bad for the community as a whole.
Co-operative enterprises provide the organisational means whereby a significant proportion of humanity is able to take into its own hands the tasks of creating productive employment, overcoming poverty and achieving social integration.
If with so little we have done so much in Brazil, imagine what could have been done on a global scale, if the fight against hunger and poverty were a real priority for the international community.
We keep calling for accountability and reinvestment and a push for all of us to imagine a world where black people are not policed but instead supported and loved and cared for. Where our families can feel safe and inspired and protected.
History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.
The role model approach to social change is no substitute for challenging unjust employment practices, educational policies and housing.