Quote

When everything that matters can be bought and sold, when commitments can be broken because they are no longer to our advantage, when shopping becomes salvation and advertising slogans become our litany, when our worth is measured by how much we earn and spend, then the market is destroying the very virtues on which in the long run it depends.

Jonathan Sacks

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Jonathan Sacks
Age: 72 †
Born: 1948
Born: March 8
Died: 2020
Died: November 7
Clergyman
Politician
Rabbi
Theologian
University Teacher
St Pancras
London
Jonathan Henry Sacks
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
Jonathan H. Sacks
Baron Sacks
Yaakov Zvi
Jonathan Henry Sacks
Baron Sacks
Matter
Broken
Advertising
Slogans
Much
Worth
Salvation
Measured
Long
Longer
Matters
Sold
Becomes
Market
Earn
Virtue
Commitment
Shopping
Running
Advantage
Virtues
Become
Spend
Bought
Litany
Everything
Depends
Destroying
Commitments

More quotes by Jonathan Sacks

Image
Faced with destruction, the Jewish people survived.
Jonathan Sacks
Image
Jews know this in their bones. Our community could not exist for a day without its volunteers. They are the lifeblood of our organizations, whether they involve welfare, youth, education, care of the sick and elderly, or even protection against violence and abuse.
Jonathan Sacks
Image
We do not always appreciate the role the Queen has played in one of the most significant changes in the past 60 years: the transformation of Britain into a multi-ethnic, multi-faith society. No one does interfaith better than the Royal family, and it starts with the Queen herself.
Jonathan Sacks
Image
Those who believe that liberal democracy and the free market can be defended by the force of law and regulation alone, without an internalised sense of duty and morality, are tragically mistaken.
Jonathan Sacks
Image
Jews read the books of Moses not just as history but as divine command. The question to which they are an answer is not, What happened? but rather, How then shall I live? And it's only with the exodus that the life of the commands really begins.
Jonathan Sacks
Image
When we love and make loving commitments, we create families and communities within which people can grow and take risks, knowing that hands will be there to catch them should they fall.
Jonathan Sacks
Image
In Judaism faith means wrestling with God as Jacob once wrestled with an angel.
Jonathan Sacks
Image
We from every religion feel comfortable in Britain because there is a host. The Church of England is a good host, it has been a major force in shaping England into such a tolerant society.
Jonathan Sacks
Image
If you want a free society, teach your children what oppression tastes like. Tell them how many miracles it takes to get from here to there. Above all, encourage them to ask questions. Teach them to think for themselves.
Jonathan Sacks
Image
The first of the request prayers in the daily Amidah is a fractal. It replicates in miniature the structure of the Amidah as a whole.
Jonathan Sacks
Image
We have lots of heroes today - sportsmen, supermodels, media personalities. They come, they have their 15 minutes of fame, and they go. But the influence of good teachers stays with us. They are the people who really shape our lives.
Jonathan Sacks
Image
Hope, even more than necessity, is the mother of invention.
Jonathan Sacks
Image
Much can and must be done by governments, but they cannot of themselves change lives.
Jonathan Sacks
Image
Jews have deep respect for the Queen and the royal family. We say a prayer for them every Sabbath in synagogue. We recite a special blessing on seeing the Queen.
Jonathan Sacks
Image
Values are tapes we play on the Walkman of the mind: any tune we choose so long as it does not disturb others.
Jonathan Sacks
Image
The market economy is deeply congruent with the values set out in the Hebrew Bible. Material prosperity is a divine blessing. Poverty crushes the spirit as well as the body, and its alleviation is a sacred task. Work is a noble calling.
Jonathan Sacks
Image
The message of Passover remains as powerful as ever. Freedom is won not on the battlefield but in the classroom and the home. Teach your children the history of freedom if you want them never to lose it.
Jonathan Sacks
Image
No great achiever - even those who made it seem easy - ever succeeded without hard work.
Jonathan Sacks
Image
Britain, relative to the U.S., is a highly secular society. Philanthropy alone cannot fill the gap left by government cutbacks. And the sources of altruism go deep into our evolutionary past.
Jonathan Sacks
Image
Find people not to envy but to admire. Do not the profitable but the admirable deed. Live by ideals.
Jonathan Sacks