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Take any one of those items and extrapolate it into sophisticated adult terms and apply it to your family life or your work or your government or your world and it holds true and clear and firm. Think what a better world it would be if we all - the whole world - had cookies and milk about three o'clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankies for a nap. Or if all governments had as a basic policy to always put things back where they found them and to clean up their own mess. And it is still true, no matter how old you are - when you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.

Robert Fulghum#14

CooperationJusticeMoralityRulesSociety

About this quote

What does it mean?
Simple rules from childhood apply globally to improve society and cooperation.
In plain terms
Apply simple childhood rules to fix the world.
What can you take from it?
Use simple rules to fix the world.

Where it applies

  • governance
  • community building
  • conflict resolution

Putting it to work

  • advocate simple rules
  • teach fairness
  • build cooperation

Questions to consider

  • Could rules fix the world?
  • What rules matter most?

Another view

Adult problems often need complex solutions.

More from Robert Fulghum

  1. Be aware of wonder. And then remember the Dick and Jane books and the first word you learned - the biggest word of all - LOOK.

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  2. A six-year-old will not understand that 'By and large it has been demonstrated that violence is counterproductive to the constructive interaction of persons an…

    Permalink to quote #15
  3. Live a balanced life - learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.

    Permalink to quote #12

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