Quotes about society and politics (page 15)

“Survey the histories of all nations. You will never see them exchange their form of government for a monarchy, given their gradation by superstition; you will always see kings supporting religion, and religion supporting kings.”

Marquis de Sade Philosophy in the Bedroom

Yet Another Effort, Frenchmen, If You Would Become Republicans
Philosophy in the Bedroom (1795)

“This world, the whole of the planet called earth, is the common country of all who live and breathe upon it.”

Desiderius Erasmus The Complaint of Peace

The Complaint of Peace (1521)

“In the country of the blind the one-eyed man is king.”
In regione caecorum rex est luscus.

Desiderius Erasmus book Adagia

Adagia (first published 1500, with numerous expanded editions through 1536), III, IV, 96
Also in the same passage of the Adagia is a variant: Inter caecos regnat strabus (Among the blind, the squinter rules).

“That's what this country needs -- more books!”

Christopher Morley (1890–1957) American journalist, novelist, essayist and poet

“I'd like to be in the country so that I'd could like being in the city.”

Fernando Pessoa book The Book of Disquiet

Ibid., p. 367
The Book of Disquiet
Original: Gostava de estar no campo para poder gostar de estar na cidade.

“We’ve been devastated by the severest and deadliest drought in history – that of our profound awareness of the futility of all effort and the vanity of all plans.”

Fernando Pessoa book The Education Of the Stoic

The Education of the Stoic: The Only Manuscript of the Baron of Teive, Exact Change, Cambridge, 2005, p. 5
The Education of the Stoic

“At such moments I don't think about all the misery, but about the beauty that still remains. This is where Mother and I differ greatly. Her advice in the face of melancholy is: "Think about all the suffering in the world and be thankful you're not part of it." My advice is: "Go outside, to the country, enjoy the sun and all nature has to offer. Go outside and try to recapture the happiness within yourself; think of all the beauty in yourself and in everything around you and be happy."”

Anne Frank (1929–1945) victim of the Holocaust and author of a diary

Dan denk ik niet aan al de ellende, maar aan het mooie dat nog overblijft. Hierin ligt voor een groot deel het verschil tussen moeder en mij. Haar raad voor zwaarmoedigheid is: "Denk aan al de ellende in de wereld en wees blij, dat jij die niet beleeft!"
Mijn raad is: "Ga naar buiten, naar de velden, de natuur en de zon, ga naar buiten en probeer het geluk in jezelf te hervinden en in God. Denk aan al het mooie dat er in en om jezelf nog overblijft en wees gelukkig!"
7 March 1944
Variant translations:
:Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy.
Think of all the beauty that is still left in and around you and be happy!
(1942 - 1944)

“Some of the biggest Drys in the country buy from me and have for years, so let's stop kidding.”

Al Capone (1899–1947) American gangster

“The country wanted booze and I organized it. Why should I be called a public enemy?”

Al Capone (1899–1947) American gangster

“It seems like I'm responsible for every crime that takes place in this country.”

Al Capone (1899–1947) American gangster

“It is not for him to pride himself who loveth his own country, but rather for him who loveth the whole world. The earth is but one country and mankind its citizens.”

Bahá'u'lláh (1817–1892) founder of the Bahá'í Faith

Source: Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh, p. 250

“Thus the whole earth will come to be regarded as one country.”

Bahá'u'lláh (1817–1892) founder of the Bahá'í Faith

Tablets of Bahá'u'lláh http://reference.bahai.org/en/t/b/TB/index.html 
Context: It behoveth the sovereigns of the world may God assist them or the ministers of the earth to take counsel together and to adopt one of the existing languages or a new one to be taught to children in schools throughout the world, and likewise one script. Thus the whole earth will come to be regarded as one country.

“The world has changed far more in the past 100 years than in any other century in history. The reason is not political or economic but technological — technologies that flowed directly from advances in basic science.”

Stephen Hawking (1942–2018) British theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author

From Hawking's article A Brief History of Relativity http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,993018-6,00.html, in Time magazine (31 December 1999)

“[on the possibility of contact with an alien civilization]: I think it would be a disaster. The extraterrestrials would probably be far in advance of us. The history of advanced races meeting more primitive people on this planet is not very happy, and they were the same species. I think we should keep our heads low.”

Stephen Hawking (1942–2018) British theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author

Appearance in the National Geographic Channel program Naked Science: Alien Contact, as quoted in The New York Times (24 November 2004) http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C00E2D8173EF937A15752C1A9629C8B63&sec=&spon= and a CNN transcript of an interview with Seth Shostak from Anderson Cooper 360 (26 November 2004) http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0411/26/acd.01.html

“The subject of this book is the structure of space-time on length-scales from 10-13cm, the radius of an elementary particle, up to 1028cm, the radius of the universe. …we base our treatment on Einstein's General Theory of Relativity. This theory leads to two remarkable predictions about the universe: first, that the final fate of massive stars is to collapse behind an event horizon to form a 'black hole' which will contain a singularity; and secondly, that there is a singularity in our past which constitutes, in some sense, a beginning to the universe.”

Stephen Hawking book The Large Scale Structure of Space-Time

with G.F.R. Ellis, "The Large Scale Structure of Space-Time" (1973) Preface

“The whole history of science has been the gradual realization that events do not happen in an arbitrary manner, but that they reflect a certain underlying order, which may or may not be divinely inspired.”

Stephen Hawking book A Brief History of Time

Source: A Brief History of Time (1988), Ch. 8

“It has certainly been true in the past that what we call intelligence and scientific discovery have conveyed a survival advantage. It is not so clear that this is still the case: our scientific discoveries may well destroy us all, and even if they don’t, a complete unified theory may not make much difference to our chances of survival.”

Stephen Hawking book A Brief History of Time

Source: A Brief History of Time (1988), Ch. 1
Context: It has certainly been true in the past that what we call intelligence and scientific discovery have conveyed a survival advantage. It is not so clear that this is still the case: our scientific discoveries may well destroy us all, and even if they don’t, a complete unified theory may not make much difference to our chances of survival. However, provided the universe has evolved in a regular way, we might expect that the reasoning abilities that natural selection has given us would be valid also in our search for a complete unified theory, and so would not lead us to the wrong conclusions.

“I'm living in the future so the present is my past.
My presence is a present, kiss my ass.”

Kanye West (1977) American rapper, singer and songwriter

Monster
Lyrics, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010)

“I open the debate… The 2nd verse of New Slaves is the best rap verse of all time…. meaning … OF ALL TIME IN THE HISTORY OF RAP MUSIC, PERIOD”

Kanye West (1977) American rapper, singer and songwriter

Twitter, July 20, 2013

“Make black history every day, I don't need a month
Ralph Lauren was borin' before I worn him.”

Kanye West (1977) American rapper, singer and songwriter

Brand New, featuring and produced by Kanye West
Lyrics, Blue Collar (2006)