Arguments are extremely vulgar, for everyone in good society holds exactly the same opinion.

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

We are the only real aristocracy in the world: the aristocracy of money.

Well, if crime fighters fight crime and fire fighters fight fire, what do freedom fighters fight? They never mention that part to us, do they?

A society made up of individuals who were all capable of original thought would probably be unendurable.

Every woman is supposed to have the same set of motives, or else to be a monster.

Some people regard private enterprise as a predatory tiger to be shot. Others look on it as a cow they can milk. Not enough people see it as a healthy horse, pulling a sturdy wagon.

The year 2100 will see eugenics universally established. In past ages, the law governing the survival of the fittest roughly weeded out the less desirable strains. Then man’s new sense of pity began to interfere with the ruthless workings of nature. As a result, we continue to keep alive and to breed the unfit.

Whether or not I like a piece of data has very little bearing on whether or not I am likely to accept it.

There will be no end to the troubles of states, or of humanity itself, till philosophers become kings in this world, or till those we now call kings and rulers really and truly become philosophers, and political power and philosophy thus come into the same hands.

The society in ‚The Handmaid’s Tale‘ is a throwback to the early Puritans whom I studied extensively at Harvard under Perry Miller, to whom the book is dedicated.

We have the resources to build room for a trillion humans in this solar system, and when we have a trillion humans, we’ll have a thousand Einsteins and a thousand Mozarts. It will be a way more interesting place to live.

The human animal cannot be trusted for anything good except en masse. The combined thought and action of the whole people of any race, creed or nationality, will always point in the right direction.

Humanity, you never had it to begin with.

Let it be our delight to find our society in the circle of which Jesus is the center, and let us make those our friends who are the friends of Jesus.

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.

If the law is upheld only by government officials, then all law is at an end.

One can be instructed in society, one is inspired only in solitude.

Our object in the construction of the state is the greatest happiness of the whole, and not that of any one class.

Among those who dislike oppression are many who like to oppress.

I can’t imagine what it is like to be raised in a society where their only statues that exist are to you and your father.

Art never harms itself by keeping aloof from the social problems of the day: rather, by so doing, it more completely realises for us that which we desire.

Man as an individual is a genius. But men in the mass form the headless monster, a great, brutish idiot that goes where prodded.

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

It is violence when we use a sharp word, when we make a gesture to brush away a person. So violence isn’t merely organized butchery in the name of God, in the name of society or country. Violence is much more subtle, much deeper.

The first requisite for the happiness of the people is the abolition of religion.

We are right to take alarm at the first experiment upon our liberties.

The masculine spirit is under assault. It’s obvious.

If you look at the history of our country over the last 100 years, there have been periods where science and research have been celebrated. They were really kind of held up as heroes in society, which encouraged a generation of people to go into these fields.

Democracy is when the indigent, and not the men of property, are the rulers.

Justice in the life and conduct of the State is possible only as first it resides in the hearts and souls of the citizens.

If men were angels, no government would be necessary.

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

Our single most important challenge is therefore to help establish a social order in which the freedom of the individual will truly mean the freedom of the individual.

Princes and governments are far more dangerous than other elements within society.

We must lay hold of the fact that economic laws are not made by nature. They are made by human beings.

People look at the same passage, and one person will say this is the best thing he’s ever read, and another person will say it’s absolutely idiotic. I mean, there’s no way to reconcile those two things. You just have to forget the whole business of what people are saying.

Ninety percent of the politicians give the other ten percent a bad reputation.

Insults are the arguments employed by those who are in the wrong.

In the long-run every Government is the exact symbol of its People, with their wisdom and unwisdom; we have to say, Like People like Government.

We may have our private opinions but why should they be a bar to the meeting of hearts?

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

Capitalism knows only one color: that color is green; all else is necessarily subservient to it, hence, race, gender and ethnicity cannot be considered within it.

Politics have no relation to morals.

We don’t need to share the same opinions as others, but we need to be respectful.

The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all.

No one has done a study on this, as far as I can tell, but I think Facebook might be the first place where a large number of people have come out. We didn’t create that – society was generally ready for that. I think this is just part of the general trend that we talked about, about society being more open, and I think that’s good.

It is change, continuing change, inevitable change, that is the dominant factor in society today. No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be.

To me, consensus seems to be the process of abandoning all beliefs, principles, values and policies. So it is something in which no one believes and to which no one objects.

Part of the reason that our politics seems so tough right now and facts and science and argument does not seem to be winning the day all the time is because we’re hardwired not to always think clearly when we’re scared. And the country’s scared.

The things that will destroy America are prosperity-at-any-price, peace-at-any-price, safety-first instead of duty-first, the love of soft living, and the get-rich-quick theory of life.

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.

Songs don’t have to be about going out on Saturday night and having a good rink-up and driving home and crashing cars. A lot of what I’ve done is about alienation… about where you fit in society.

Good humor is one of the best articles of dress one can wear in society.

Once spirit was God, then it became man, and now it is even becoming mob.

The community which has neither poverty nor riches will always have the noblest principles.

It is not part of a true culture to tame tigers, any more than it is to make sheep ferocious.

We have to do more than just elect a new President if we truly want to change this country.

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.

Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy.

Literature is strewn with the wreckage of men who have minded beyond reason the opinions of others.