{ "type": "quote", "site": { "name": "Leafy Quotes", "language": "en", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com" }, "formats": "Every page has two versions with the same data: JSON (the page address + .json) and markdown (the page address + .md). Append .json or .md to any `url` in this document.", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tony-judt/ill-fares-the-land/something-is-profoundly", "json": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tony-judt/ill-fares-the-land/something-is-profoundly.json", "markdown": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tony-judt/ill-fares-the-land/something-is-profoundly.md", "id": "f5421602-49b7-49af-a8fd-847398412eb9", "slug": "something-is-profoundly", "text": "Something is profoundly wrong with the way we live today. For thirty years we have made a virtue out of the pursuit of material self-interest: indeed, this very pursuit now constitutes whatever remains of our sense of collective purpose. We know what things cost but have no idea what they are worth. We no longer ask of a judicial ruling or a legislative act: is it good? Is it fair? Is it just? Is it right? Will it help bring about a better society or a better world? Those used to be the political questions, even if they invited no easy answers. We must learn once again to pose them.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Tony Judt", "slug": "tony-judt", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tony-judt" }, "book": { "title": "Ill Fares The Land", "slug": "ill-fares-the-land", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tony-judt/ill-fares-the-land" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "consumerism", "slug": "consumerism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/consumerism" }, { "name": "materialism", "slug": "materialism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/materialism" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tony_Judt#Ill_Fares_the_Land_(2010)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:00:31", "more_from_book": [ { "id": "e2ce14f2-3faa-4720-b22d-4f1eb1f1314d", "slug": "the-past-was", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tony-judt/ill-fares-the-land/the-past-was", "text": "The past was neither as good nor as bad as we suppose: it was just different. If we tell ourselves nostalgic stories, we shall never engage the problems that face us in the present—and the same is true if we fondly suppose that our own world is better in every way. The past really is another country: we cannot go back. However, there is something worse than idealizing the past—or presenting it to ourselves and our children as a chamber of horrors: forgetting it.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" }, { "name": "nostalgia", "slug": "nostalgia", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nostalgia" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tony_Judt#Ill_Fares_the_Land_(2010)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:00:31" }, { "id": "cd552311-18c8-425b-a7d2-39a1cad18db4", "slug": "we-have-entered", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tony-judt/ill-fares-the-land/we-have-entered", "text": "We have entered an age of insecurity—economic insecurity, physical insecurity, political insecurity. The fact that we are largely unaware of this is small comfort: few in 1914 predicted the utter collapse of their world and the economic and political catastrophes that followed. Insecurity breeds fear. And fear—fear of change, fear of decline, fear of strangers and an unfamiliar world—is corroding the trust and interdependence on which civil societies rest.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "fear", "slug": "fear", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fear" }, { "name": "safety", "slug": "safety", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/safety" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tony_Judt#Ill_Fares_the_Land_(2010)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:00:31" }, { "id": "188c2382-e6cd-402f-a52c-cfa82f2ab967", "slug": "inequality-is-corrosive", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tony-judt/ill-fares-the-land/inequality-is-corrosive", "text": "Inequality is corrosive. It rots societies from within. The impact of material differences takes a while to show up: but in due course competition for status and goods increases; people feel a growing sense of superiority (or inferiority) based on their possessions; prejudice towards those on the lower ranks of the social ladder hardens; crime spikes and the pathologies of social disadvantage become ever more marked. The legacy of unregulated wealth creation is bitter indeed.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "society", "slug": "society", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/society" }, { "name": "social inequality", "slug": "social-inequality", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/social-inequality" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tony_Judt#Ill_Fares_the_Land_(2010)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:00:31" } ] }