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.

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.

That country is the richest which nourishes the greatest number of noble and happy human beings.

In our seeking for economic and political progress, we all go up – or else we all go down.

Everything is changing. People are taking their comedians seriously and the politicians as a joke.

There has to be a global mission of human progress.

The love of the family, the love of one person can heal. It heals the scars left by a larger society. A massive, powerful society.

The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.

Advocates of capitalism are very apt to appeal to the sacred principles of liberty, which are embodied in one maxim: The fortunate must not be restrained in the exercise of tyranny over the unfortunate.

The polls show that concern over inequality among the general public rose pretty sharply after the Occupy movement started, very probably as a consequence. And there are other policy issues that came to the fore, which are significant.

America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between.

I think that people want peace so much that one of these days government had better get out of their way and let them have it.

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?

When I look at public opinion, I’m not far out of the mainstream. I’m in it, in many respects. In some respects, public opinion goes beyond anything I’ve ever said.

It is hard to read a newspaper or watch a television newscast without encountering someone who has come up with a new ‚solution‘ to society’s ‚problems.‘

There’s only one thing that can kill the movies, and that’s education.

Dissident intellectuals aren’t all beautiful.

I would just like to say something, ladies and gentlemen. Something that I think is very important. It is that, you, we – we own this country. We – we own it. It is not you owning it, and not politicians owning it. Politicians are employees of ours.

Our modern society – especially in the West, and especially now – reveres youth.

There is precious little in civilization to appeal to a Yeti.

There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.

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.

The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.

There are plenty of people who are, I think, completely racist who love hip-hop.

You cannot talk about race without talking about privilege. And when people start talking about privilege, they get paralyzed by shame.

In many ways, when you’re a Nobel peace laureate, you have an obligation to humankind, to society.

The government is us; we are the government, you and I.

Anyone who knows history, particularly the history of Europe, will, I think, recognize that the domination of education or of government by any one particular religious faith is never a happy arrangement for the people.

For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.

Certainly the best works, and of greatest merit for the public, have proceeded from the unmarried, or childless men.

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.

Censorship ends in logical completeness when nobody is allowed to read any books except the books that nobody reads.

Any unarmed people are slaves, or are subject to slavery at any given moment.

Our generation in the west was lucky: we had readymade gateways. We had books, paper, teachers, schools and libraries. But many in the world lack these luxuries. How do you practice without such tryout venues?

If the people cannot trust their government to do the job for which it exists – to protect them and to promote their common welfare – all else is lost.

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

All the arguments which are brought to represent poverty as no evil show it evidently to be a great evil.

I am neither bitter nor cynical but I do wish there was less immaturity in political thinking.

If the battle for civilization comes down to the wimps versus the barbarians, the barbarians are going to win.

No government ought to be without censors; and where the press is free no one ever will.

People do not make wars; governments do.

Music is always a commentary on society.

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.

This City is what it is because our citizens are what they are.

To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society.

The biggest and most deadly ‚tax‘ rate on the poor comes from a loss of various welfare state benefits – food stamps, housing subsidies and the like – if their income goes up.

It is odd that we have so little relationship with nature, with the insects and the leaping frog and the owl that hoots among the hills calling for its mate. We never seem to have a feeling for all living things on the earth.

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.

There are times when one would like to hang the whole human race, and finish the farce.

One of the powerful temptations is that of the cinema palace. The cinema has undoubtedly an enormous attraction for boys, and people are constantly cudgelling their brains how to stop it. But it is one of those things which would be very difficult to stop even if it were altogether desirable.

The old-fashioned idea is that responsibility falls upon those who borrow and lend. Money was not borrowed by campesinos, assembly plant workers, or slum-dwellers. The mass of the population gained little from borrowing, indeed often suffered grievously from its effects.

Good men must not obey the laws too well.

If a man walks in the woods for love of them half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer. But if he spends his days as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making the earth bald before her time, he is deemed an industrious and enterprising citizen.

Cultures, for better or worse, are very stable.

The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal.

The wave of evil washes all our institutions alike.

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.

Capitalism has proven to be the only system that works, but the problem with capitalism is that extreme wealth ends up in the hands of a few people.

The punishment which the wise suffer who refuse to take part in the government, is to live under the government of worse men.

What should young people do with their lives today? Many things, obviously. But the most daring thing is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured.

Men have become the tools of their tools.