society quotes

If men were angels, no government would be necessary.

If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.

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

Most men are individuals no longer so far as their business, its activities, or its moralities are concerned. They are not units but fractions.

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

People have never looked so ugly as they do today. We just consume far too much.

Of all the enemies of public liberty, war is perhaps the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other.

Among a people generally corrupt liberty cannot long exist.

You can’t get a contemporary story about what is going on inside government, and how society sees itself, on American TV.

A well-instructed people alone can be permanently a free people.

The internet could be a very positive step towards education, organisation and participation in a meaningful society.

But while they prate of economic laws, men and women are starving. We must lay hold of the fact that economic laws are not made by nature. They are made by human beings.

We live in a bewildering world.

The world is put back by the death of every one who has to sacrifice the development of his or her peculiar gifts to conventionality.

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

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.

For the introduction of a new kind of music must be shunned as imperiling the whole state; since styles of music are never disturbed without affecting the most important political institutions.

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.

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

In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.

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

It is not possible for civilization to flow backwards while there is youth in the world. Youth may be headstrong, but it will advance it allotted length.

To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea.

In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place, oblige it to control itself.

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.

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

We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology.

I would probably have more in common with a whale than with a bourgeois married couple employed at worthy institutions that I would wipe from the face of the earth if it was given to me to do so.

I’m not a reality-TV kind of guy. But it’s almost like we’re living in a reality show. Every day in this country, everybody keeps worrying about the deterioration of America, and it’s like a big reality show.

In order to acquire a growing and lasting respect in society, it is a good thing, if you possess great talent, to give, early in your youth, a very hard kick to the right shin of the society that you love. After that, be a snob.

I have never thought it necessary to patronize the American people.

How terribly downright must be the utterances of storms and earthquakes to those accustomed to the soft hypocrisies of society.

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

The ultimate tendency of civilization is towards barbarism.

At the bottom of education, at the bottom of politics, even at the bottom of religion, there must be for our race economic independence.

In this constant battle which we call living, we try to set a code of conduct according to the society in which we are brought up, whether it be a Communist society or a so-called free society; we accept a standard of behaviour as part of our tradition as Hindus or Muslims or Christians or whatever we happen to be.

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.

I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them.

Taking care of children has nothing to do with politics. I think perhaps with time, instead of there being a politicization of humanitarian aid, there will be a humanization of politics.

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

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.

I suppose society is wonderfully delightful. To be in it is merely a bore. But to be out of it is simply a tragedy.

In a higher phase of communist society… only then can the narrow horizon of bourgeois right be fully left behind and society inscribe on its banners: from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.

The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.

The lessons of history would suggest that civilisations move in cycles. You can track that back quite far – the Babylonians, the Sumerians, followed by the Egyptians, the Romans, China. We’re obviously in a very upward cycle right now, and hopefully that remains the case. But it may not.

A particularly beautiful woman is a source of terror. As a rule, a beautiful woman is a terrible disappointment.

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.

Life cannot subsist in society but by reciprocal concessions.

The French are so into themselves that they don’t even notice you.

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.

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.

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.

Babylon is everywhere. You have wrong and you have right. Wrong is what we call Babylon, wrong things. That is what Babylon is to me. I could have born in England, I could have born in America, it make no difference where me born, because there is Babylon everywhere.

I’m interested in that drive, that rush to judgment, that is so prevalent in our society. We all know that pleasurable rush that comes from condemning, and in the short term it’s quite a satisfying thing to do, isn’t it?

Politics have no relation to morals.

The world is all the richer for having a devil in it, so long as we keep our foot upon his neck.

We are so conformist; nobody is thinking. We are all sucking up stuff; we have been trained to be consumers, and we are all consuming far too much.

I live in a crazy time.

Society has made us believe you should look like an 18-year-old model all your life.

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