Monday 15 April 2013

Help by our own efforts those who are unfortunate



Who said this?

There is living tapestry of men and women and people and the beauty of that tapestry and the quality of our lives will depend upon how much each of us is prepared to take responsibility for ourselves and each of us prepared to turn round and help by our own efforts those who are unfortunate.

This whole unscripted verbatim sentence (taken from an interview) was too long to remember, and the concept somewhat too difficult to grasp because it balanced four ingredients: individuals, quality of life, personal responsibility and helping others. 

Possibly because of that,  the shorter sentence which preceded this remark, carrying only one ingredient, was remembered instead. 

What was that sentence?

3 comments:

  1. Elijah Armstrong16 April 2013 at 05:38

    Russell maybe?

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  2. Without aid of google, I'll bet it's Mrs T and the dreaded "...there is no such thing as society". As you perhaps imply, what she had to say was in fact very sensible and decent. Partly it was a complaint about the lazy, indeed idiotic, claim that "society should do somefink abaht it", her point being that "society" was you and me.

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    Replies
    1. Yes, you bet correctly. Her point,as you say, is that society is an abstraction, and we depend on our neighbours, and they depend on us, in a tapestry of responsibility.

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