Civilization is the limitless multiplication of unnecessary necessities.

It is a vain hope to make people happy by politics.

What consumerism really is, at its worst is getting people to buy things that don’t actually improve their lives.

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.

There can never be any stop to learn about different cultures by travelling to different places. And whatever comes your way, continue the healthy eating habits.

I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them but to inform their discretion.

The tyranny of a multitude is a multiplied tyranny.

The Public is merely a multiplied ‚me.‘

This is a wonderful planet, and it is being completely destroyed by people who have too much money and power and no empathy.

It is hard to be an individual in Japan.

No one can say, ‚I have dropped out – I am no longer in the system.‘ When you’re in prison, you’re even closer to the system: you feel it more, and you might be in there for whatever reason. You don’t transform the system as an absolute thing.

The upward course of a nation’s history is due in the long run to the soundness of heart of its average men and women.

Our society is illuminated by the spiritual insights of the Hebrew prophets. America and Israel have a common love of human freedom, and they have a common faith in a democratic way of life.

Humanity I love you because when you’re hard up you pawn your intelligence to buy a drink.

I should tie myself to no particular system of society other than of socialism.

People do not make wars; governments do.

The clearest way to show what the rule of law means to us in everyday life is to recall what has happened when there is no rule of law.

Look at our society. Everyone wants to be thin, but nobody wants to diet. Everyone wants to live long, but few will exercise. Everybody wants money, yet seldom will anyone budget or control their spending.

The true danger is when liberty is nibbled away, for expedience, and by parts.

In too much of the West, everyone wants the guarantee of safety, and never having to make any decisions.

Since I have come to America, I am often asked whether my next novel will be set in America. I don’t think it will. I think I will be living in America for some time to come, but while living in America, I would like to write about Japanese society from the outside.

We’re so immaturely cynical as a culture. We’re not wise enough to look at an institution like marriage and to really things about what it means and what it signifies. It signifies a place where people can tie the ropes of their lives together so that they’re stronger. It signifies a place where people can tell the truth to one another.

The diversity of India, of our civilization, is actually a thing of beauty, which is something we are extremely proud of.

Well, we’re living in a material world, and I’m a material girl… or boy.

A bookstore is one of the only pieces of evidence we have that people are still thinking.

If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him.

We must rekindle the fire of idealism in our society.

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.

It is clearly better that property should be private, but the use of it common; and the special business of the legislator is to create in men this benevolent disposition.

I find myself hoping a total end of all the unhappy divisions of mankind by party-spirit, which at best is but the madness of many for the gain of a few.

He who is unable to live in society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for himself, must be either a beast or a god.

Law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress.

It seems like a lot of people seek their peace in things. And most of us are not even satisfied with the things we have… we always want more.

I had three chairs in my house; one for solitude, two for friendship, three for society.

I’m thrilled to have Corona join me on my ‚X100PRE‘ Tour to give my fans a taste of Corona Estereo Beach and showcase their support of Latin music. It’s not solely about the music – it’s about the culture, creativity, and contributing to the movement that connects us all together.

When I was a child, I was very poor and wanted everything. So when I got money, I began buying things.

There are some loony people in this world!

History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.

A nation which has forgotten the quality of courage which in the past has been brought to public life is not as likely to insist upon or regard that quality in its chosen leaders today – and in fact we have forgotten.

A state of society where men may not speak their minds cannot long endure.

To assert in any case that a man must be absolutely cut off from society because he is absolutely evil amounts to saying that society is absolutely good, and no-one in his right mind will believe this today.

If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there’d be peace.

War is a way of shattering to pieces… materials which might otherwise be used to make the masses too comfortable and… too intelligent.

Money is kind of a base subject. Like water, food, air and housing, it affects everything yet for some reason the world of academics thinks it’s a subject below their social standing.

Long before history began we men have got together apart from the women and done things. We had time.

Collecting facts is important. Knowledge is important. But if you don’t have an imagination to use the knowledge, civilization is nowhere.

If civilization is to survive, we must cultivate the science of human relationships – the ability of all peoples, of all kinds, to live together, in the same world at peace.

Society can overlook murder, adultery or swindling; it never forgives preaching of a new gospel.

Y’all are so cute and y’all talk so proper over here. I love England.

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

The best security for civilization is the dwelling, and upon properly appointed and becoming dwellings depends, more than anything else, the improvement of mankind.

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.

Yeah, it’s pretty hard not to be completely cynical these days.

There is no private life which has not been determined by a wider public life.

The civilized man has built a coach, but has lost the use of his feet.

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.

Everybody looks like clones and the only people you notice are my age. I don’t notice anybody unless they look great, and every now and again they do, and they are usually 70.

In hip-hop, there’s not a lot of love. There’s not a lot of love being spread. It’s always like ‚I’m stuntin‘ on you raps, or I’m better than you raps.‘ It’s not a lot of ‚Yo man, I idolize you raps.‘

All partisan movements add to the fullness of our understanding of society as a whole. They never detract; or, in any case, one must not allow them to do so. Experience adds to experience.

I think it’s brought the world a lot closer together, and will continue to do that. There are downsides to everything; there are unintended consequences to everything. The most corrosive piece of technology that I’ve ever seen is called television – but then, again, television, at its best, is magnificent.

It was the Law of the Sea, they said. Civilization ends at the waterline. Beyond that, we all enter the food chain, and not always right at the top.