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If You Don't Have An Ethic Of Conservation, You Basically Have A License To Drive A Hummer Through The Amazon.
-Thomas Friedman
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If You Don't Have

Thomas Friedman
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If You Don't Have An Ethic Of Conservation, You Basically Have A License To Drive A Hummer Through The Amazon.

Understanding the Quote: "if you don't have an ethic of conservation, you basically have a..."

This quote by Thomas Friedman reflects deeply on the theme of amazon. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Amazon, Ethics, Conservation, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Thomas Friedman interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Thomas Friedman

Thomas Friedman is celebrated for insightful thoughts on amazon and ethics. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Topic
Amazon
Ethics
Conservation
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Everyone Needs To Get Together And Say: "our Objective Is To Preserve And Enhance The Game And The Planet On Which It's Played. To Make Golf A Leader In Greening The World."
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If You Don't Visit A Bad Neighborhood, It Might Visit You.
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The Unemployment Rate Today For People With Our-year College Degrees Is 4.1%, Which Is Almost None. That's People Switching Jobs Basically. That Tells You That Education Is The Only Way Up And The Only Way Out. If That Is The Fact, Then We've Got To Get More Of It For More People.
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Criticizing Israel Is Not Anti-semitic, And Saying So Is Vile. But Singling Out Israel For Opprobrium And International Sanction - Out Of All Proportion To Any Other Party In The Middle East - Is Anti-semitic, And Not Saying So Is Dishonest.
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Breakthrough
Needed
Until We Fully Understand What Turned Two Brothers Who Allegedly Perpetrated The Boston Marathon Bombings Into Murderers, It Is Hard To Make Any Policy Recommendation Other Than This: We Need To Redouble Our Efforts To Make America Stronger And Healthier So It Remains A Vibrant Counterexample To Whatever Bigoted Ideology May Have Gripped These Young Men....and The Best Place To Start Is With A Carbon Tax.
Brother
Men
Boston
Combating Climate Change Requires Government Policy, And Most Conservatives Hate The Idea Of More Government Regulation. Because They Hate The Prescription, They Deny The Diagnosis.
Hate
Climate Change
Policy
I'm From Minnesota. I'm Optimistic. I Mean, That's Just Who I Am.
Optimistic
Mean
Who I Am
Every Golf Course Should Have Its Carbon Rating On The Scorecard, Alongside Its Course Rating, Slope, Par And Yardage.
Golf
Should Have
Rating
The Poverty Fighters Resent The Climate-change Folks; Climate Folks Hold Summits Without Reference To Biodiversity; The Food Advocates Resist The Biodiversity Protectors. They All Need To Go On Safari Together.
Together
Needs
Safari
We Have To Fight The Terrorists As If There Were No Rules And Preserve Our Open Society As If There Were No Terrorists.
Fighting
Terrorist
Preserves
I Think We Have Lost Our Groove As A Country. One Of The Reasons Was The Attack On 9/11. We Got Knocked Off Our Game. From A Country That Always Exported Hope We Went Into The Business Of Exporting Fear.
Country
Thinking
Games
There's A Difference Between Being Able To Make Long Distance Phone Calls Cheaper On The Internet And Walking Around Riyadh With A Pda Where You Can Have All Of Google In Your Pocket. It's A Difference In Degree That's So Enormous It Becomes A Difference In Kind.
Distance
Phones
Differences
American Young People Have Got To Understand From An Early Age That The World Pays Off On Results, Not On Effort. Not Everyone Should Win A Prize No Matter Where He Or She Finishes.
Winning
People
Effort
Remember, The Difference Between The World Frozen Over, In An Ice Ball, And The Warming Period We're In Now Is Just 6 Degrees Centigrade. A Change Of Just 1 Degree Can Have A Huge Effect.
World
Remember
Every Sport Needs Its Temple, Its Cathedral.
Sports
Needs
Temples
Some Would Ask Which Country Am I From? We Are Supposed To Tell The Truth, [so] We Tell Them India. Some Thought It Was Indiana, Not India! Some Did Not Know Where India Is. I Said It Is The Country Next To Pakistan.
Country
India
Pakistan
What If We're Wrong And There Is No Climate Change? Well, By Doing Everything Possible To Address It, We Will Still Use Less Water, Stimulate New Energy Savings And, In Time, Money-saving Technologies, Enjoy Cleaner Air, And Preserve More Forests And Trees And Animals.
Animal
Technology
Water
No Two Countries That Both Had Mcdonald's Had Fought A War Against Each Other Since Each Got Its Mcdonald's
Country
War
Mcdonalds
Do You Know What My Favorite Renewable Fuel Is? An Ecosystem For Innovation.
Ecosystems
Innovation
Fuel
The Ideal Country In A Flat World Is The One With No Natural Resources, Because Countries With No Natural Resources Tend To Dig Inside Themselves. They Try To Tap The Energy, Entrepreneurship, Creativity, And Intelligence Of Their Own People-men And Women-rather Than Drill An Oil Well.
Country
Creativity
Men
When People Get Frustrated, It's When They Feel They Are Living In A Context That Deprives Them Of Dignity, Deprives Them Of Justice And Deprives Them Of The Freedom To Realize Their Full Potential, And That To Me Is What The Arab Awakening Was All About. I Think It Applied To Every Country, And So I Have Been An Unmitigated Supporter Of It.
Country
Thinking
People
Tap Into People's Dignity And They Will Do Anything For You. Ignore It, And They Won't Lift A Finger.
Wisdom
People
Dignity
Only If You Give The Palestinians Something To Lose Is There A Hope That They Will Agree To Moderate Their Demands.... I Believe That As Soon As Ahmed Has A Seat In The Bus, He Will Limit His Demands.
Believe
Giving
Demand
The Philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein Once Remarked That If You Ask A Man How Much Is Two Plus Two And He Tells You Five, That Is A Mistake. But If You Ask A Man How Much Is Two Plus Two And He Tells You Ninety-seven, That Is No Longer A Mistake. The Man You Are Talking To Is Operating With A Wholly Different Logic From Your Own.
Mistake
Men
Talking
Why Is It Muslims From Pakistan Or From Egypt Come To America And Thrive, And They Are Frustrated Back Home? It's About Clean Government. It's About A Rule Of Law. It's About Intellectual Property Protection. They've Got All The Talent And Energy Of Anybody Else. As New Immigrants They May Have More Of It, So You Put Them In Our System And They Become Doctors, Lawyers, And Businessmen And Entrepreneurs.
Home
Doctors
Government
I Am Hoping, Though, That Many Of Them Have Kids, Who, When They Have A Moment To Take A Break From Their Ipods, Internet, Or Google, Will Explain To Their Parents Running The Country Just How The World Is Being Flattened.
Running
Country
Kids
The Dell Theory Of Conflict Prevention Argues That No Two Countries That Are Both Part Of The Same Global Supply Chain Will Ever Fight A War As Long As They Are Each Part Of That Supply Chain.
Country
War
Fighting
I Said That More People In More Places Can Now Compete, Connect And Collaborate With Equal Power And Equal Tools Than Ever Before.
People
Tools
Bangalore
Supply Chains Cannot Tolerate Even 24 Hours Of Disruption. So If You Lose Your Place In The Supply Chain Because Of Wild Behavior You Could Lose A Lot. It Would Be Like Pouring Cement Down One Of Your Oil Wells.
Oil
Ties
Would Be
If You Don't Have An Ethic Of Conservation, You Basically Have A License To Drive A Hummer Through The Amazon.
Amazon
Ethics
Conservation
Our President's Latest Energy Initiative Was To Go To Saudi Arabia And Beg King Abdullah To Give Us A Little Relief On Gasoline Prices. I Guess There Was Some Justice In That. When You, The President, After 9/11, Tell The Country To Go Shopping Instead Of Buckling Down To Break Our Addiction To Oil, It Ends With You, The President, Shopping The World For Discount Gasoline.
Country
Kings
Gasoline Prices
We're Going In The Wrong Direction And I Think The Only Way To Counter That Is To Bring The Story Home In Really Concrete Ways To People - In Ways That Kids Can Understand And Non-scientists Can Understand.
Home
Kids
Thinking
I'm Pretty Much An Open Book. I Am A Fanatic Golfer And Golf Nut. If I Have Three Free Hours Any Day, My First Choice Is To Run To The Golf Course If The Weather Is Nice.
Running
Nice
Book
Even If America Tomorrow - And It Won't Happen Overnight - But If We Did Reduce Our Demand For Gas And Natural Gas And Crude Oil By A Significant Degree, That Does Have An Exponential Effect On Producers In The Middle East, Everything Else Being Equal. But If China's Demand Is Growing And India's Demand Is Growing, They Are Not Going Back.
Oil
America
East
Iraq May Still Have A Decent Outcome...but Even If It Becomes Switzerland, We Overpaid For It.
Iraq
Switzerland
May
I Think There Are Different Kinds Of Elites. I Think There Are Venal Elites, And Self-interested Elites, And Selfish Elites, And I Think There Are Visionary Elites.
Selfish
Thinking
Different
Mcdonald's Cannot Flourish Without Mcdonnell Douglas, The Builder Of The F-15.
Mcdonalds
Designer
I Don't Think That Stability And The Status Quo Go Together At All, Not In A Flat World Where People Are Integrated, Where Women Are Assuming New Roles, Where Young People Want To Be Consulted And Participate. I Think The Trick Is To Open Up, Move Down The Path Of Reform, Do It In A Way That Is Consistent With Your Own Society's Stability And Culture, And Just Don't Think You Can Do Nothing.
Moving
Thinking
People
We Are Entering A Hyperconnected World Where Every Boss Now Has More Access, Cheap Access To Cheap Labor, Cheap Genius, Cheap Robot, Cheap Software, And Then This World Averages Over. There Is Only One Answer To That, And That Is To Get Everyone As Close As Possible To Some Form Of Post-secondary Education, It Could Be Vocational, It Can Be Liberal Arts, It Can Be Science And Technology.
Art
Technology
Average
The Golden Straitjacket Is The Defining Political-economic Garment Of Globalization. [...] The Tighter You Wear It, The More Gold It Produces.
Political
Gold
Defining
There Is No Substitute For Face-to-face Reporting And Research.
Research
Faces
Substitutes
What Every Employer Is Looking For Is Not Someone Who Can Do The Job, But Someone Who Can Reinvent The Job.
Jobs
Work
Job Well Done
My Mother-in-law Says If You Want To Live Like A Republican, Vote Like A Democrat. That If You Are A Part Of The Group That Is Doing Well In This System, You Owe It To Yourself And To Others To Look Out For Them And Make Sure You Are Always Building A Ladder For Others To Join You.
Mother
Law
Groups
I Am Being Very Humble About The Arab Spring. There's Kind Of A Competition Out There, You Might Have Noticed, Of Who Can Be The First To Say The Arab Spring Is Going To Fail. Everyone Says, "i Told You So, I Told You So About The Muslim Brotherhood." I Have No Desire To Tell Anyone Anything. I Don't Know. I'm Just Listening, Watching. It May Turn Out All These People Are Right, They May Be Wrong. They May Be Right This Year And Wrong Next Year, By The Way. I'm Just Trying To Listen Day To Day, Figure It Out.
Spring
Humble
Years
Hillary Clinton Has Decided To Line Up With John Mccain In Pushing To Suspend The Federal Excise Tax On Gasoline, 18.4 Cents A Gallon, For This Summer's Travel Season. This Is Not An Energy Policy. This Is Money Laundering: We Borrow Money From China And Ship It To Saudi Arabia And Take A Little Cut For Ourselves As It Goes Through Our Gas Tanks. What A Way To Build Our Country.
Summer
Country
Cutting
Obviously China Is Clearly Taking The Lead In Some Areas, But When It Comes To The Most Advanced Innovation, It's Still America.
America
Innovation
China
Something Really Big Happened In The World's Wiring In The Last Decade, But It Was Obscured By The Financial Crisis And Post-9/11. We Went From A Connected World To A Hyperconnected World. I'm Always Struck That Facebook, Twitter, 4g, Iphones, Ipads, High-speech Broadband, Ubiquitous Wireless And Web-enabled Cellphones, The Cloud, Big Data, Cellphone Apps And Skype Did Not Exist Or Were In Their Infancy A Decade Ago.
Change
Data
Ipads
What About The Rest Of Life? Respect For The Sanctity Of Life, If You Believe That It Begins At Conception, Cannot End At Birth.
Believe
Rest Of Life
Abortion
The Middle East Would Always Be An Important Trading Partner In Just A Market Sense, Like America Is A Big Market For Us, Asia Is A Big Market, Europe Is A Big Market. You Are Going To Have Hundreds Of Millions Of Consumers There, From Just A Standard Market Point Of View, From A Very Narrow American Point Of View.
Views
Europe
America
I Was In Bangalore, India, The Silicon Valley Of India, When I Realized That The World Was Flat.
India
Valleys
World
A Vision Without Resources Is An Hallucination.
Success
Vision
Hallucinations
By 'flat' I Did Not Mean That The World Is Getting Equal. I Said That More People In More Places Can Now Compete, Connect And Collaborate With Equal Power And Equal Tools Than Ever Before. That's Why An Indian In Bangalore Can Take Care Of The Office Work Of American Doctors Or Read The X-rays Of German Hospitals.
Mean
Doctors
Office Work
The First Rule Of Holes Is When You're In One, Stop Digging. When You're In Three, Bring A Lot Of Shovels.
Digging
Three
Firsts
In The Future, How We Educate Our Children May Prove To Be More Important Than How Much We Educate Them.
Children
Important
May
If You Don't Visit The Bad Neighborhoods, The Bad Neighborhoods Are Going To Visit You.
Life
Success
Visits You
The Hidden Hand Of The Market Will Never Work Without A Hidden Fist -- Mcdonald's Cannot Flourish Without Mcdonnell Douglas, The Builder Of The F-15. And The Hidden Fist That Keeps The World Safe For Silicon Valley's Technologies Is Called The United States Army, Air Force, Navy And Marine Corps.
Marine
Army
Technology
I Have A Daughter Who Is A Sophomore In College And Another Who Is In The 11th Grade Of High School.
Daughter
Mother
School
All One Needs To Do Is Just To Go To Any Hospital In America And See The Number Of Pakistani Or Indian Or Lebanese, Or Syrian, Or Egyptian Doctors, Who Are Either First Generation Or Themselves Immigrants, To Know, And I'm A Big Believer - Brains Are Distributed Evenly Around The World. What Aren't Distributed Evenly Are Opportunities, Stable Government, Educational Institutions, Etc.
Educational
Opportunity
Doctors
If You Are Self-motivated, Wow, This World Is Tailored For You. The Boundaries Are All Gone. But If You're Not Self-motivated, This World Will Be A Challenge Because The Walls, Ceilings And Floors That Protected People Are Also Disappearing. That Is What I Mean When I Say "it Is A 401(k) World." Government Will Do Less For You. Companies Will Do Less For You. Unions Can Do Less For You. There Will Be Fewer Limits, But Also Fewer Guarantees. Your Specific Contribution Will Define Your Specific Benefits Much More. Just Showing Up Will Not Cut It.
Wall
Mean
Cutting
You'll Know The Green Revolution Has Been Won When The Word 'green' Disappears.
Green
Revolution
Disappear
The Arab World Had A Big Problem Of Frankly Venal Elites. That Is Why These Revolutions Happen, Because People Didn't Think The Opportunities Were Being Shared Fairly.
Opportunity
Thinking
People
Scientists Tend To Focus On What They Don't Know More Than What They Do Know. And There Are A Lot Of Things We Still Don't Know About The Climate. But We Know The Difference Between Climate Variability And Climate Change, And Right Now The Amount Of Carbon In The Atmosphere Is Well Outside The Variability Pattern - And That's Quite Quantifiable.
Focus
Atmosphere
Scientist
I Don't Think A Monarchy Led By 75- And 80-year-old Men [saudi Arabia] In Today's Modern World Is Really Sustainable.
Men
Thinking
Years
You Really Do Have To Wonder Whether A Few Years From Now We’ll Look Back At The First Decade Of The 21st Century — When Food Prices Spiked, Energy Prices Soared, World Population Surged, Tornados Plowed Through Cities, Floods And Droughts Set Records, Populations Were Displaced And Governments Were Threatened By The Confluence Of It All — And Ask Ourselves: What Were We Thinking? How Did We Not Panic When The Evidence Was So Obvious That We’d Crossed Some Growth/climate/natural Resource/population Redlines All At Once?
Thinking
Government
Years
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