The great weakness of the West is that it has nothing with which to inspire loyalty except wealth. But what is wealth? Another washing machine, a bigger car, a nicer house to live in? Not much to feed the spirit in all that.

John Burdett
About This Quote

In the early 1900s, a prominent American writer and poet named Charles W. Eliot wrote a series of essays on what made a person live a meaningful life. In one essay, he wrote: “The great weakness of the West is that it has nothing with which to inspire loyalty except wealth. But what is wealth? Another washing machine, a bigger car, a nicer house to live in? Not much to feed the spirit in all that.” The West might have been better off if it had been born with something more memorable to inspire loyalty.

In the end, he was wrong. An increasing number of people are choosing to make their loyalty to something more meaningful than things.

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