“It is as though an immense wedge were being forced, not underneath society, but through society. Those who are above the point of separation are elevated, but those who are below are crushed down.”

— Henry George , book Progress and Poverty

Introductory : The Problem
Progress and Poverty (1879)
Context: It is true that wealth has been greatly increased, and that the average of comfort, leisure, and refinement has been raised; but these gains are not general. In them the lowest class do not share. I do not mean that the condition of the lowest class has nowhere nor in anything been improved; but that there is nowhere any improvement which can be credited to increased productive power. I mean that the tendency of what we call material progress is in nowise to improve the condition of the lowest class in the essentials of healthy, happy human life. Nay, more, that it is still further to depress the condition of the lowest class. The new forces, elevating in their nature though they be, do not act upon the social fabric from underneath, as was for a long time hoped and believed, but strike it at a point intermediate between top and bottom. It is as though an immense wedge were being forced, not underneath society, but through society. Those who are above the point of separation are elevated, but those who are below are crushed down.

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Henry George 61

American economist 1839–1897

Kirby Page (1890–1957) American clergyman

Source: Jesus or Christianity: A Study in Contrasts (1929), p. 31
Context: Society always issues an ultimatum to the innovator; conform to this world or expect the reward of a heretic or a traitor. Every generation metes out substantially the same punishment to those who fall far below and those who rise high above its standards. Thieves and prophets of a new day rot in the same foul dungeon; murderers and the Savior of mankind agonize on adjacent crosses.

“Those who suffer are not those at the top, but are the less privileged members of society.”

Bianca Jagger (1945) Nicaraguan-born social and human rights advocate and a former actress

“Education by the State is a contradiction in terms. Intellectual development is only possible to those who have seen through society.”

Celia Green (1935) British philosopher

The Decline and Fall of Science (1976)

“There is a never-ending struggle against the need for the state to be strong enough to be functional and to have a civilized society, and at the same time, its desire to crush those who stand in the way.”

David Cay Johnston (1948) Investigative journalist and author

David Cay Johnston; How The One Percent Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (Jun 23, 2009)

“We are all forced to participate in a society that is held together by structural violence, and rewarded for our participation with various privileges, though these privileges are spread unevenly across society. Given that those who use some form of visible, antisocial violence are often the least likely to enjoy the privileges of structural violence, there is no feasible way to determine who is violent and who is not.”

Peter Gelderloos (1982) American anarchist

Source: "The Failure of Nonviolence" (2013) https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/peter-gelderloos-the-failure-of-nonviolence, Chapter 1. Violence Doesn't Exist

“Society was cut in two: those who had nothing united in common envy; those who had anything united in common terror.”

Alexis De Tocqueville (1805–1859) French political thinker and historian

Source: Recollections on the French Revolution

“Those people who occupy a territory determine the nature of the society in that region.”

Arthur Kemp (1962) British writer

The Lie of Apartheid

“There are two types of writers: those who write to support the existing system and prove and augment its legitimacy through their writings. On the other hand, there are those who critically examine society and make an attempt to restructure and reform it on the basis of fresh ideas.”

Mubarak Ali (1941) Historian, activist, scholar

Dimensions of History, Chapter: Intellectuals and Society, p. 56
Writer

“The further a society drifts from truth, the more it will hate those who speak it.”

George Orwell (1903–1950) English author and journalist

This has been attributed to Orwell on the internet, but the earliest source citing him as author appears to be a post from Jsnip4 on the RealistNews.net forum (15 February 2011) http://www.realistnews.net/Thread-realist-news-was-the-capital-gains-tax-just-removed-regarding-bullion. Prior to this, the statement occurred, without attribution to Orwell, in an opinion piece by columnist Selwyn Duke http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/duke/090506, "Stopping Truth At The Border: Banning Michael Savage From Britain" (6 May 2009) https://web.archive.org/web/20150701002957/http://www.conservativecrusader.com/articles/stopping-truth-at-the-border-banning-michael-savage-from-britain.
Misattributed

“We are in a society where the power is in the hands of those who are the worst breed of humanity.”

Malcolm X (1925–1965) American human rights activist

Speech in Rochester, New York (16 February 1965)
Malcolm X Speaks (1965)

“It is as though an immense wedge were being forced, not underneath society, but through society. Those who are above the point of separation are elevated, but those who are below are crushed down.”

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