Civilization is the limitless multiplication of unnecessary necessities.

Hatred is something peculiar. You will always find it strongest and most violent where there is the lowest degree of culture.

We only need so much to survive, but this world we live in tells us we need more stuff to be happy. We’re inundated with our televisions, the Internet and advertising that says in order to be happy you have to have these things. When you say, ‚Gimme, gimme, gimme,‘ you will always be in short supply.

There never was and is not likely soon to be a nation of philosophers, nor am I certain it is desirable that there should be.

On a level plain, simple mounds look like hills; and the insipid flatness of our present bourgeoisie is to be measured by the altitude of its great intellects.

A nation’s culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its people.

No good is ever done to society by the pictorial representation of its diseases.

I just like to have words that describe things correctly. Now to me, ‚black feminist‘ does not do that. I need a word that is organic, that really comes out of the culture, that really expresses the spirit that we see in black women. And it’s just… womanish.

If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.

In the literal sense, there has been no relevant evolution since the trek from Africa. But there has been substantial progress towards higher standards of rights, justice and freedom – along with all too many illustrations of how remote is the goal of a decent society.

Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.

The decline of literature indicates the decline of a nation.

When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.

It is lamentable, that to be a good patriot one must become the enemy of the rest of mankind.

I don’t think even ungodly people realize what a society would be like that had no godly influence at all.

Each new generation born is in effect an invasion of civilization by little barbarians, who must be civilized before it is too late.

In France there are, I think, less than one per cent of people who are too skinny.

Measures must always in a progressive society be held superior to men, who are after all imperfect instruments, working for their fulfilment.

The Iraqis have become invested in their nationhood.

Part of your heritage in this society is the opportunity to become financially independent.

When I arrived in Laos and found young Americans living there, out of free choice, I was surprised. After only a week, I began to have a sense of the appeal of the country and its people – along with despair about its future.

We’ve gotta become the Martians. I’m a Martian – I tell you to become Martians. And we’ve gotta go to Mars and civilize Mars and build a whole civilization on Mars and then move out, 300 years from now into the universe. And when we do that, we have a chance of living forever.

The environment that we call society is created by past generations; we accept it, as it helps us to maintain our greed, possessiveness, illusion.

The world is a republic of mediocrities, and always was.

Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful.

The American people have not become heartless.

Savages we call them because their manners differ from ours.

The end of the human race will be that it will eventually die of civilization.

Make no mistake about why these babies are here – they are here to replace us.

It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.

The more laws and order are made prominent, the more thieves and robbers there will be.

Society does not consist of individuals but expresses the sum of interrelations, the relations within which these individuals stand.

In South Korea, they believe that when you turn 60, you’ve become a baby again and the rest of your life should be totally about joy and happiness, and people should leave you alone, and I just think that that’s the height of intelligence.

No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, and no culture comparable to that of the garden.

This will never be a civilized country until we spend more money for books than we do for chewing gum.

It is pretty ironic that the so-called ‚least advanced‘ people are the ones taking the lead in trying to protect all of us, while the richest and most powerful among us are the ones who are trying to drive the society to destruction.

No one would talk much in society if they knew how often they misunderstood others.

History shows us that in times of people feeling like they are in need of some sort of rebellion or protests, the artists rise because the poetry we create about pain and its relationship to culture in the world begins to soothe and heal people who are feeling confused or afraid.

We live in an imperfect world, and imperfect people surround us every day.

The people who hold that our culture is an oppressive patriarchy, they don’t want to admit that the current hierarchy might be predicated on competence.

All cultures have these feelings about non-functional areas of activity. And the more time people have on their hands, the more they commit it to those areas.

The myths underlying our culture and underlying our common sense have not taught us to feel identical with the universe, but only parts of it, only in it, only confronting it – aliens.

Men make history and not the other way around. In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better.

And while the law of competition may be sometimes hard for the individual, it is best for the race, because it ensures the survival of the fittest in every department.

Democracy don’t rule the world, You’d better get that in your head; This world is ruled by violence, But I guess that’s better left unsaid.

In England, football is a big thing to talk about, but Liverpool, it’s a special place. You feel it when you make your first step.

In India we only read about death, sickness, terrorism, crime.

It is an unfortunate human failing that a full pocketbook often groans more loudly than an empty stomach.

Excessive literary production is a social offense.

There is no room for military people, including our veterans, to see themselves as victims, even if so many of our countrymen are prone to relish that role.

The elections are run by the same industries that sell toothpaste on television.

Laws, like houses, lean on one another.

In America today, we are nearer a final triumph over poverty than is any other land.

The number, the industry, and the morality of the priesthood, and the devotion of the people have been manifestly increased by the total separation of the church from the state.

My age is very insignificant to me. I don’t think about it, but the world does. The world likes young people in general.

America is just downright mean.

Capitalism has destroyed our belief in any effective power but that of self interest backed by force.

The world has grown suspicious of anything that looks like a happily married life.

If you’re not producing as much as you consume, or perhaps a little more, then clearly we cannot use the big organization of our society for the purpose of keeping you alive, because your life does not benefit us, and it can’t be of very much use to yourself.

I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.

‚Evil men have no songs.‘ How is it that the Russians have songs?