It is one thing to be clever and another to be wise.
Even if we act to erase material poverty, there is another greater task; it is to confront the poverty of satisfaction _ purpose and dignity _ that afflicts us all. Too much and for too long, we seemed to have surrendered personal excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. Our Gross National Product, now, is over $800 billion a year, but that Gross National Product _ counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for the people who break them. It counts...
The Happiness Manifesto
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Even if we act to erase material poverty, there is another greater task; it is to confront the poverty of satisfaction _ purpose and dignity _ that afflicts us all. Too much and for too long, we seemed to have surrendered personal excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. Our Gross National Product, now, is over $800 billion a year, but that Gross National Product _ counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for the people who break them. It counts...
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