"When the world is running down, you make the best of what's still around"
About this Quote
The key move is the “you.” Sting doesn’t universalize with airy slogans; he assigns agency. The line asks you to stop waiting for conditions to improve and start practicing triage: what remains usable, what still matters, what can still be turned into pleasure, meaning, or connection. “Make the best” is deliberately modest. It rejects the heroic narrative (fix everything) and the nihilist one (nothing matters) in favor of a third posture: adaptive dignity.
In context, it fits Sting’s late-70s/early-80s sensibility - recession jitters, Cold War dread, a cultural comedown after the utopian promises of the 60s. Pop music at that moment often toggled between escapism and alarm; this lyric threads them together. It’s danceable pragmatism: yes, the future looks dented, but there’s still a beat, still a room, still a choice.
Quote Details
| Topic | Optimism |
|---|---|
| Source | "Message in a Bottle" — song by The Police (lyrics by Sting), 1979, album Reggatta de Blanc; contains the line attributed to Sting. |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Sting. (2026, January 16). When the world is running down, you make the best of what's still around. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/when-the-world-is-running-down-you-make-the-best-96405/
Chicago Style
Sting. "When the world is running down, you make the best of what's still around." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/when-the-world-is-running-down-you-make-the-best-96405/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"When the world is running down, you make the best of what's still around." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/when-the-world-is-running-down-you-make-the-best-96405/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.









