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Society Quotes
"To read without reflecting is like eating without digesting."
62
"Eccentricity has always abounded when and where strength of character had abounded; and the amount of eccentricity in a society has generally been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigor, and courage which it contained."
61
"In a closed society where everybody's guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity."
61
"We have held the peculiar notion that a person or society that is a little different from us, whoever we are, is somehow strange or bizarre, to be distrusted or loathed. Think of the negative connotations of words like alien or outlandish. And yet the monuments and cultures of each of our civilizations merely represent different ways of being human. An extraterrestrial visitor, looking at the differences among human beings and their societies, would find those differences trivial compared to the similarities."
61
"This crippling of individuals I consider the worst evil of capitalism. Our whole educational system suffers from this evil. An exaggerated competitive attitude is inculcated into the student, who is trained to worship acquisitive success as a preparation for his future career."
61
"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."
61
"World peace must develop from inner peace. Peace is not just mere absence of violence. Peace is, I think, the manifestation of human compassion."
60
"Justice is itself the great standing policy of civil society; and any eminent departure from it, under any circumstances, lies under the suspicion of being no policy at all."
60
"We... have created a greater material wealth than any other society in the history of the human race. Yet we have managed to kill off millions of our population in an arrangement which we call "war."
60
"In polite society one laughs at all the jokes, including the ones one has heard before."
59
"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."
59
"I suddenly began to realize that everybody in America is a natural-born thief."
59
"What's done to children, they will do to society."
58
"It is the tendency of the social burdens to crush out the middle class, and to force society into an organization of only two classes, one at each social extreme."
58
"My hope that the Church will emerge as a strong leader in society is just that a hope. What I described in The Catholic Moment is not a prophecy but the outline of a possibility. There are no guarantees that my hopes expressed in The Catholic Moment will ever be realised."
58
"These are not dark days: these are great days - the greatest days our country has ever lived."
58
"This topic brings me to that worst outcrop of herd life, the military system, which I abhor... This plague-spot of civilization ought to be abolished with all possible speed. Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism -- how passionately I hate them!"
58
"You like every one; that is to say, you are indifferent to every one."
58
"The trouble is it's very difficult to pin-point the most important thing because Aids affects everyone in different levels of society, differently and you have to respond to it differently."
57
"Society mends its wounds. And that's invariably true in all the tragedies, in the comedies as well. And certainly in the histories."
57
"Every society gets the kind of criminal it deserves. What is equally true is that every community gets the kind of law enforcement it insists on."
57
"A healthy democracy requires a decent society; it requires that we are honorable, generous, tolerant and respectful."
57
"The Money River, where the wealth of the nation flows. We were born on the banks of it-and so were most of the mediocre people we grew up with, went to private schools with, sailed and played tennis with. We can slurp from that mighty river to our hearts' content. And we can even take slurping lessons, so we can slurp more efficiently."
57
"The forces in a capitalist society, if left unchecked, tend to make the rich richer and the poor poorer."
57
"Eroticism has its own moral justification because it says that pleasure is enough for me; it is a statement of the individual's sovereignty."
57
"We must create a kind of globalization that works for everyone... and not just for a few."
57
"Nudity is the uniform of the other side... nudity is a shroud."
57
"I see in the fight club the strongest and smartest men who've ever lived. I see all this potential and I see squandering. God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables, slaves with white collars, advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. We're the middle children of the history man, no purpose or place, we have no Great war, no Great depression, our great war is a spiritual war, our great depression is our lives, we've been all raised by television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires and movie gods and rock stars, but we won't and we're slowly learning that fact. and we're very very pissed off."
57
"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."
56
"As society advances the standard of poverty rises."
56
"Run away from greatness and greatness will follow you."
56
"A free economy is as essential to society as democratic political institutions. A strong market-based economy is the fertile ground for democratic freedoms that we think are important."
56
"Flattery corrupts both the receiver and the giver."
56
"We are too undemanding, too ready to watch whatever is on the screen, too lonely, lazy, or bored to create our own lives. We turn on the TV and leave it on, allowing someone else to guide us."
56
"It is a woman's business to get married as soon as possible, and a man'sto keep unmarried as long as he can."
56
"The business schools reward difficult complex behavior more than simple behavior, but simple behavior is more effective."
56
"The first sign of corruption in a society that is still alive is that the end justifies the means."
55
"Melancholy in a capitalist, like the appearance of a comet, presages some misfortune to the world."
55
"Poor people! They build tunnels to reach the light."
55
"There is nothing we can now call our own, for what we call so is the effect of art; crimes are made by decrees of the senate, or by the votes of the people; and as here-to-fore we are burdened by vices, so now we are oppressed by laws."
55
"The kind of society which we still have is maybe, in some cases, getting worse. Competition is becoming a virtue. Intense competition drives people to go more and more into self-interest. Even to see other folks as competition."
55
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