"I know some question whether we can afford to act this year. But the unmistakable truth is that it would be irresponsible to not act.

VOA: standard.2009.06.13

That is to say not even the best city on Aristotle's account can afford to be without a foreign policy.

这也就说明,就算是亚里士多德笔中的最佳之城,也承受不起没有外交政策的后果。

耶鲁公开课 - 政治哲学导论课程节选

And that right now we can no longer afford to incarcerate, see, more than two million people, and take them not only out of workforce, but keeping them away from information of knowledge of literacy.

现在，我们已没有能力,去限制两亿人口，让他们，脱离劳动力，让他们脱离信息,知识或文化素养。

麻省理工公开课 - 媒体、教育、市场课程节选