Be
a Hero for a Better World ... Every Act of Kindness Makes
a Difference!
GREED
"The
Gesundheit Institute is a pie in the face of greed
- by taking the most expensive thing in America,
health care, and giving it away for free."
-- Patch
Adams
*
What made traditional economies so radically different
and so very fundamentally dangerous to Western economies
were the traditional principles of prosperity of Creation
versus scarcity of resources, of sharing and distribution
versus accumulation and greed, of kinship usage rights
versus individual exclusive ownership rights, and
of sustainability versus growth. -- Rebecca
Adamson
Economic
development, more than any single issue, is the battle
line between two competing world views. Tribal people's
fundamental value was sustainability, and they conducted
their livelihoods in ways that sustained resources
and limited inequalities in their society. What made
traditional economies so radically different and so
very fundamentally dangerous to Western economies
were the traditional principles of prosperity of Creation
versus scarcity of resources, of sharing and distribution
versus accumulation and greed, of kinship usage rights
versus individual exclusive ownership rights, and
of sustainability versus growth. -- Rebecca
Adamson
Imagine
a world where everyone has all they need.
Where kindness and compassion are taught instead of
greed.
Imagine a better world...Imagine peace on earth!
--
Robert
Alan Silverstein
Entitlements
are not handouts you see,
It’s your rights in a free society.
Law is a social contract,
Says if you abide it you’ll get back
All that you need.
Has nothing to do with greed.
So don’t let them take away
What you need to be free today
--
Robert
Alan Silverstein
Capitalism
is a thug's economy, a heartless economy, a base and
vile and largely boring economy. It is the antithesis
of human fulfillment and development. It mocks equity
and justice. It enshrines greed... Capitalism sucks.
Does anyone seriously want to contest that?
-- Michael Albert
*
"We who have been born Buddhist, Hindu, Christian,
Muslim, or any other faith can be very comfortable
in each others temple's, mosques, and churches, praying
or meditating together to create a spiritual mass
of consciousness which can overcome our greed, hatred,
and illusions."
--
Dr.
Ari Ariyaratne
*
Mediation
and reconciliation work is about a profound quest
for justice and social transformation. But at the
same time, they are about service, solidarity, about
exploring and rediscovering the human spirit that
has been lost or shattered through human conflict,
cruelty, ignorance and greed…
-- Hizkias
Assefa
The
problems are our lives. In the "developed" countries,
at least, the large problems occur because all of
us are living either partly wrong or almost entirely
wrong. It was not just the greed of corporate shareholders
and the hubris of corporate executives that put
the fate of Prince William Sound into one ship;
it was also our demand that energy be cheap and
plentiful.
-- Wendell
Berry
But
our waste problem is not the fault only of producers.
It is the fault of an economy that is wasteful from
top to bottom—a symbiosis of an unlimited greed
at the top and a lazy, passive, and self-indulgent
consumptiveness at the bottom—and all of us are
involved in it. -- Wendell
Berry
*Man
has but little heeded the advice of the wise men. He
has been - fatefully, if not willingly - less virtuous,
less constant, less rational, less peaceful than he
knows how to be, than he is fully capable of being.
He has been led astray from the ways of peace and brotherhood
by his addiction to concepts and attitudes of narrow
nationalism, racial and religious bigotry, greed and
lust for power.
-- Ralph
J. Bunche
Then
all that has divided us will merge
And then compassion will be wedded to power
And then softness will come to a world that is harsh and
unkind
And then both men and women will be gentle
And then both women and men will be strong
And then no person will be subject to another's will
And then all will be rich and free and varied
And then the greed of some will give way to the needs of
many And then all will share equally in the earth's abundance
And then all will care for the sick and the weak and the
old
And then all will nourish the young
And then all will cherish life's creatures
And then all will live in harmony with each other and with
the earth
And everywhere will be called Eden, once again.
-- Judy Chicago
"Most
of us have become Ecozombies, desensitized, environmental
deadheads. On average, society conditions us to spend over
95% of our time and 99.9% of our thinking disconnected from
nature. Nature's extreme absence in our lives leaves us
abandoned and wanting. We feel we never have enough. We
greedily, destructively, consume and, can't stop. Nature's
loss in our psyche produces a hurt, hungering, void within
us that bullies us into our dilemmas."
~ Michael J. Cohen
*
“I
think war is based in greed and there are huge karmic
retributions that will follow. I think war is never
the answer to solving any problems. The best way to
solve problems is to not have enemies.”
--
Sheryl
Crow
The
only effective answer to organized greed is organized labor.
--Thomas Donahue
Do you
want to know the cause of war? It is capitalism, greed,
the dirty hunger for dollars.
Take away the capitalist and you will sweep war from the
earth."
-- Henry Ford
Nonviolence,
therefore, can be described as an honest and diligent
pursuit of truth. It could also mean the search for
the meaning of life or the purpose of life, questions
that have tormented humankind for centuries. The fact
that we have not been able to find satisfactory answers
to these questions does not mean there is no answer.
It only means we have not searched with any degree
of honesty. The search has to be both external and
internal. We seek to ignore this crucial search because
the sacrifices it demands are revolutionary. It means
moving away from greed, selfishness, possessiveness,
and dominance to love, compassion, understanding,
and respect.
-- Arun
Gandhi
*
There's
enough on this planet for everyone's needs but not
for everyone's greed.
~ Mohandas
Gandhi
*
There's
enough on this planet for everyone's needs but not
for everyone's greed.
~ Mohandas
Gandhi
*
"What
does labor want? We want more schoolhouses and less
jails; more books and less arsenals; more learning
and less vice; more leisure and less greed; more justice
and less revenge; in fact, more of the opportunities
to cultivate our better natures, to make manhood more
noble, womanhood more beautiful, and childhood more
happy and bright."
-- Samuel
Gompers
We
should know that only replacing the economics of competition
and greed with the economics of equitable cooperation
will guarantee a globalization that takes advantage
of potential efficiency gains in ways that also promote
environmental protection, international equity, economic
democracy, and variety.
-- Robin Hahnel
"I'm
not against the corporations. They are our wealth.
But they are getting too greedy. I don't want to do
away with corporations. I want them to make our cars,
however, not our laws." -- Doris
Haddock (Granny D)
*
We
have a duty to look after each other. If we lose control
of our government, then we lose our ability to dispense
justice and human kindness. Our first priority today,
then, is to defeat utterly those forces of greed and
corruption that have come between us and our self-governance. -- Doris
Haddock (Granny D)
They
have stolen the public lands. They have grasped all to themselves,
and by their unprincipled greed brought a crisis of unparalleled
distress on forty millions of people, who have natural resources
to feed, clothe and shelter the whole human race.
-- Denis Kearney
*
Imagine
no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world
-- John
Lennon
What
our country deserves from everyone who enjoys its fruits
and freedoms is a little more gratitude – and a lot less
greed.
- - Michelle Malkin
Let
us forget such words, and all they mean, as Hatred, Bitterness
and Rancor, Greed, Intolerance, Bigotry.
Let us renew our faith and pledge to Man, his right to be
Himself, and free.
-- Edna St. Vincent Millay
*
"Of
course I am frustrated with regard to extreme poverty,
to violence that never seems to cease. Greed is the
key. It’s easy to sit in relative luxury and peace and
pontificate on the subject of the Third World debts.
Not many of us are willing to give up everything we
have. We can however give some, and millions of people
do, governments do, but there is so much more to be
done."
-- Sir
Roger Moore
The
present age handed over the workers, each alone and defenseless,
to the unbridled greed of competitors... so that a very
few and exceedingly rich men have laid a yoke of almost
slavery on the unnumbered masses of non-owning workers.
-- Pope Leo XIII
As long as people and the planet are being exploited,
and billions of dollars are being made precisely because
laborers and the environment are being abused and
used up, there will be children going hungry and ecological
destruction. As long as war and violence are in our
hearts and our streets as well as in our nations,
as long as corporate greed and unsustainable consumption
are at the forefront of our economies, no child will
be born into a truly safe, peaceful or loving world."
~ Ocean
Robbins
*
“Seek
the truly practical life, but seek it in such a way
that it does not blind you to the spirit working in
it. Seek the spirit, but seek it not out of spiritual
greed, but so that you may apply it in the genuinely
practical life.”
-- Rudolf
Steiner
I think
the greedy corporate owners have to be confronted with the
fact
that they are ignoring their most powerful resource -- their
workers.
-- John Sweeney
"There
is much suffering in the world - physical, material,
mental. The suffering of some can be blamed on the
greed of others. The material and physical suffering
is suffering from hunger, from homelessness, from
all kinds of diseases. But the greatest suffering
is being lonely, feeling unloved, having no one. I
have come more and more to realize that it is being
unwanted that is the worst disease that any human
being can ever experience."
-- Mother
Teresa
Peace
is a virtual, mute, sustained victory of potential powers
against probable greeds
-- Paul Valery
*
Our planet is dying - both spiritually and physically.
Fear, aggression and greed, narrow-minded national
interests and immature dominance and control over
others is a common theme in most countries. However,
there are more and more people who define themselves
as global citizens, who know that life is intimately
interconnected, and that we can never be fully human
whilst others continue to suffer, and who know that
love, justice and nonviolence is the very essence
of life. And what gives me hope is the very many different
ways in which ordinary people are taking responsibility.
They are creating the changes needed to pass beyond
war and injustice, control and dominance and towards
a free, just, loving, and diverse world.
-- Angie
Zelter
Read The Better World
Shopping Guide Every Dollar Makes
a Difference Purchase
at Amazon.com
Read The BETTER
WORLD BOOK ... join
the betterworld
movement... FREE
online