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Society Quotes
"Between Countess Nordston and Levin there had been established those relations, not infrequent in society, in which two persons, while ostensibly remaining on friendly terms, are contemptuous of each other to such a degree that they cannot even treat each other seriously and cannot even insult each one another."
48
"A tribe is a group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader, and connected to an idea. For millions of years, human beings have been part of one tribe or another. A group needs only two things to be a tribe: a shared interest and a way to communicate."
48
"Dominator culture has tried to keep us all afraid, to make us choose safety instead of risk, sameness instead of diversity. Moving through that fear, finding out what connects us, revelling in our differences; this is the process that brings us closer, that gives us a world of shared values, of meaningful community."
46
"No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable."
45
"Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we're being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I'm liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That's what's insane about it."
44
"I have been blessed often by Buddha, but equally by America."
44
"Interethnic and spiritual accord is our strategic resource, the basis for progress of our society and state."
44
"The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world that it leaves to its children."
44
"I'm an underdog person, so I align myself with those who seem to be not considered valuable in polite society."
43
"Society is becoming less and less transparent. People no longer know where decisions that substantially affect their lives are taken, nor by whom, nor how."
40
"As a nation, we began by declaring that 'all men are created equal.' We now practically read it 'all men are created equal, except negroes.' When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read 'all men are created equal, except negroes, and foreigners, and Catholics.' When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense of loving liberty " to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocrisy."
40
"Long run is a misleading guide to current affairs. In the long run we are all dead."
39
"One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we've been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We're no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It's simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we've been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back."
39
"Freedom in capitalist society always remains about the same as it was in ancient Greek republics: Freedom for slave owners."
38
"Where men are forbidden to honour a king they honour millionaires, athletes, or film-stars instead: even famous prostitutes or gangsters. For spiritual nature, like bodily nature, will be served; deny it food and it will gobble poison."
37
"Intellectual freedom depends upon material things. Women have had less intellectual freedom than the sons of Athenian slaves. Women, then, have not had a dog's chance of writing poetry. That is why I have laid so much stress on money and a room of one's own."
37
"Why should we use the Dollar even when we trade among ourselves?"
36
"Our choice of a reform framework dictated that we looked at the fundamental assumptions that had driven Nigeria's economy, society and policy hitherto and to seek ways of either abandoning or transcending those assumptions and their supporting institutions."
36
"The forces in a capitalist society, if left unchecked, tend to make the rich richer and the poor poorer."
36
"To give up the task of reforming society is to give up one's responsibility as a free man."
35
"Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe."
35
"This is the century of fear."
35
"Patriotism, whether it is of the Western kind, or of the Eastern kind, is the same, a poison in human beings that is really distorting thought. So patriotism is a disease, and when you begin to realize, become aware that it is a disease, then you will see how your mind is reacting to that disease. When, in time of war, the whole world talks of patriotism, you will know the falseness of it, and therefore you will act as a true human being."
35
"The most violent element in society is ignorance."
34
"A healthy democracy requires a decent society; it requires that we are honorable, generous, tolerant and respectful."
34
"Today we know that centralization and big bureaucracies have not, as promised, been the answer for promoting better opportunities for society."
33
"The interesting thing is why we're so desperate for this anesthetic against loneliness."
33
"I prefer the company of peasants because they have not been educated sufficiently to reason incorrectly."
33
"Run away from greatness and greatness will follow you."
32
"Writers, you know, are the beggars of Western society."
31
"Human beings do not live in the objective world alone, nor alone in the world of social activity as ordinarily understood, but are very much at the mercy of the particular language which has become the medium of expression for their society."
31
"The problem in our country isn't with books being banned, but with people no longer reading. You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them."
31
"Our society must make it right and possible for old people not to fear the young or be deserted by them, for the test of a civilization is the way that it cares for its helpless members."
30
"The most that somebody in Mexico City will get paid for a job in construction is 100 pesos a day."
30
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