Gustavo

“Whether it’s the growth of the economy, audience shares, publications – slowly but surely, quality is being replaced by quantity. ... And driving it all is a force sometimes called “liberalism,” an ideology that has been all but hollowed out. ... Freedom may be our highest ideal, but ours has become an empty freedom. Our fear of moralizing in any form has made morality a taboo in the public debate. The public arena should be “neutral,” after all – yet never before has it been so paternalistic. On every street corner we’re baited to booze, binge, borrow, buy, toil, stress, and swindle. Whatever we may tell ourselves about freedom of speech, our values are suspiciously close to those touted by precisely the companies that can pay for prime-time advertising.”
― Rutger Bregman, Utopia for Realists: How We Can Build the Ideal World

“In a consumer society there are inevitably two kinds of slaves: the prisoners of addiction and the prisoners of envy.”
― Ivan Illich

“There was a balance. It wasn’t because humans lived in balance with nature. Humans died in balance with nature.”
― Hans Rosling, Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About The World - And Why Things Are Better Than You Think

“There is nothing worse than bringing up the 'good old days.' To me, that's the ultimate acknowledgment of failure.”
― Karl Lagerfeld