Quotes about society
page 8

“The society whose citizens are willing to stand and fight is the one with the best chance of surviving long enough for history to even notice.”

Orson Scott Card book Empire

Source: Empire

History, Chance, Fight

“A society that puts equality before freedom will get neither. A society that puts freedom before equality will get a high degree of both.”

Milton Friedman (1912–2006) American economist, statistician, and writer

From Created Equal, an episode of the PBS Free to Choose television series (1980, vol. 5 transcript) http://www.freetochoosemedia.org/broadcasts/freetochoose/detail_ftc1980_transcript.php?page=5. Variant: The society that puts equality before freedom will end up with neither. The society that puts freedom before equality will end up with a great measure of both.

Freedom

“The greatest products of architecture are less the works of individuals than of society; rather the offspring of a nation's effort, than the inspired flash of a man of genius…”

Victor Hugo book The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Source: The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

Effort

“They seemed to be able to choose. We seemed to be able to choose, then. We were a society dying of too much choice.”

Margaret Atwood book The Handmaid's Tale

Source: The Handmaid's Tale

“To go into solitude, a man needs to retire as much from his chamber as from society. I am not solitary whilst I read and write, though nobody is with me. But if a man would be alone, let him look at the stars.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

Source: Nature and Selected Essays

Star, Solitude, Reading

“Once a man has seen society's black underbelly, he can never turn his back on it. Never pretend, like you do, that it doesn't exist.”

Alan Moore book Watchmen

Source: Watchmen

“You can hand out condoms, drop bombs, build roads, or put in electricity, but until the girls are educated a society won’t change.”

Greg Mortenson (1957) American mountaineer and humanitarian

Education, Girl, Change

“The most violent element in society is ignorance.”

Emma Goldman (1868–1940) anarchist known for her political activism, writing, and speeches

Variant: The most unpardonable sin in society is independence of thought.

“Precisely at the point when you begin to develop a conscience you must find yourself at war with your society.”

James Baldwin (1924–1987) (1924-1987) writer from the United States

War

“Remember, children. For every exit, there is also an entrance. ~ Milligan, The Mysterious Benedict Society”

Trenton Lee Stewart (1970) Novelist

Children

“Badger hates Society, and invitations, and dinner, and all that sort of thing.”

Kenneth Grahame book The Wind in the Willows

Source: The Wind in the Willows (1908), Ch. 3

Hate

“Psychopaths [make] the world go around… society [is] an expression of that particular sort of madness… I've always believed society to be a fundamentally rational thing, but what if it isn't? What if it is built on insanity?”

Jon Ronson (1967) British journalist, documentary filmmaker, radio presenter and nonfiction author

Source: The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry

World, Madness

“There is so much more to this world then outward appearances. Our society basks in the illusion of normalcy every day, and hides from the truth every night.”

Amber Benson (1977) actress from the United States

Source: Accursed

Truth, World, Appearance, Night

“As a performer, I wanted to be the loudest, most persistent alarm clock I could be, because there didn’t seem like any other way to snap society out of its Christianity- and media-induced coma.”

Marilyn Manson (1969) American rock musician and actor

Source: The Long Hard Road Out of Hell

Way

“Only the individual can think, and thereby create new values for society — nay, even set up new moral standards to which the life of the community conforms. Without creative, independently thinking and judging personalities the upward development of society is as unthinkable as the development of the individual personality without the nourishing soil of the community.
The health of society thus depends quite as much on the independence of the individuals composing it as on their close political cohesion.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

"Einstein's Reply to Criticisms" (1949), The World As I See It (1949)
Context: A man's value to the community depends primarily on how far his feelings, thoughts, and actions are directed towards promoting the good of his fellows. We call him good or bad according to how he stands in this matter. It looks at first sight as if our estimate of a man depended entirely on his social qualities.
And yet such an attitude would be wrong. It is clear that all the valuable things, material, spiritual, and moral, which we receive from society can be traced back through countless generations to certain creative individuals. The use of fire, the cultivation of edible plants, the steam engine — each was discovered by one man.
Only the individual can think, and thereby create new values for society — nay, even set up new moral standards to which the life of the community conforms. Without creative, independently thinking and judging personalities the upward development of society is as unthinkable as the development of the individual personality without the nourishing soil of the community.
The health of society thus depends quite as much on the independence of the individuals composing it as on their close political cohesion.

Life, Health, Communication, Thinking

“I endeavored to renounce society, that I might avoid temptation. But it was a poor religion; so far as it prevailed, only tended to make me gloomy, stupid, unsociable, and useless.”

John Newton (1725–1807) Anglican clergyman and hymn-writer

Stupidity, Religion

“Is there any point in public debate in a society where hardly anyone has been taught how to think, while millions have been taught what to think?”

Peter Hitchens (1951) author, journalist

Thinking

“We cling to the idea that success is a simple function of individual merit and that the world in which we all grow up and the rules we choose to write as a society don't matter at all.”

Malcolm Gladwell (1963) journalist and science writer

Source: Outliers: The Story of Success

World, Idea, Success

“The paradox of education is precisely this - that as one begins to become conscious one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated.”

James Baldwin (1924–1987) (1924-1987) writer from the United States

Education

“Since we live in a society that promotes faddism and temporary superficial adaptation of different values, we are easily convinced that changes have occurred in arenas where there has been little or no change.”

Bell Hooks book Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center

(1984)
Source: Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center

Change

“The plain working truth is that it is not only good for people to be shocked occasionally, but absolutely necessary to the progress of society that they should be shocked pretty often.”

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright

Source: The Quintessence of Ibsenism

People, Truth

“Human society as a whole is a vast brainwashing machine whose semantic rules and sex roles create a social robot.”

Robert Anton Wilson book Prometheus Rising

Source: Prometheus Rising

Sex

“No matter what a woman's appearance may be, it will be used to undermine what she is saying and taken to individualize - as her personal problem - observations she makes about the beauty myth in society.”

Naomi Wolf (1962) American writer

Beauty, Problem, Appearance, Personality

“It must be recognized that in any culture the source of law is the god of that society.”

Rousas John Rushdoony (1916–2001) American theologian

Audio lectures, Dominion (n. d.)
Source: The Institutes of Biblical Law, Volume 1 of 3
Context: Now a sovereign, a Lord, is always the source of law. Law making is the pejorative of the Lord or sovereign of a God. In every religious faith, in every religion, in every culture, the God of that system provides the laws. They are of his making. And if you allow any other law to come in you are acknowledging another God. This is why in Europe when the doctrine of the Divine right of kings arose there was a militant hostility on the part of the keys for any aspect of Biblical law. And the war against Biblical law began under the kings of Europe as monarchies began to rise in the late middle ages.

God, Law

“The most dangerous creation of any society is the man who has nothing to lose.”

James Baldwin (1924–1987) (1924-1987) writer from the United States

For Men

“The problem in our society and in our schools is to inclulcate, without overdoing it, the notion of education, as in the Latin educere--to lead, to bring out what is in someone rather than merely to indoctrinate him/her from the outside. (89)”

Joseph Campbell (1904–1987) American mythologist, writer and lecturer

Source: Thou Art That: Transforming Religious Metaphor

Education, School, Problem

“It is quite common to hear high officials in Washington and elsewhere speak of changing the map of the Middle East, as if ancient societies and myriad peoples can be shaken up like so many peanuts in a jar.”

Edward Said (1935–2003) Professor of English and literature

People, Change

“To build a better world we need to replace the patchwork of lucky breaks and arbitrary advantages today that determine success--the fortunate birth dates and the happy accidents of history--with a society that provides opportunities for all.”

Malcolm Gladwell (1963) journalist and science writer

Source: Outliers: The Story of Success

Happiness, World, History, Birth

“Slavery… dishonors labor. It introduces idleness into society, and with idleness, ignorance and pride, luxury and distress. It enervates the powers of the mind and benumbs the activity of man.”

Alexis De Tocqueville book Democracy in America

Source: Democracy in America

“Personally I regard idling as a virtue, but civilized society holds otherwise.”

J. Maarten Troost (1969) American writer

Source: The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific

Personality

“We overlook just how large a role we all play--and by 'we' I mean society--in determining who makes it and who doesn't.”

Malcolm Gladwell (1963) journalist and science writer

Source: Outliers: The Story of Success

“You know the message you're sending out to the world with these sweatpants? You're telling the world, 'I give up. I can't compete in normal society. I'm miserable, so I might as well be comfortable.”

Jerry Seinfeld (1954) American comedian and actor

World

“And the mind that has conceived a plan of living must never lose sight of the chaos against which that pattern was conceived. That goes for societies as well as for individuals.”

Ralph Ellison book Invisible Man

Epilogue.
Source: Invisible Man (1952)

“Society had a crime problem. It hired cops to attack crime. Now society has a cop problem.”

Tom Robbins book Still Life with Woodpecker

Source: Still Life with Woodpecker (1980)

Problem

“Public libraries have been a mainstay of my life. They represent an individual's right to acquire knowledge; they are the sinews that bind civilized societies the world over. Without libraries, I would be a pauper, intellectually and spiritually.”

James A. Michener (1907–1997) American author

Life, World, Knowledge

“Liking other people is an illusion we have to cherish in ourselves if we are to live in society.”

John Fowles book The Magus

Source: The Magus

People

“Education spending will be most effective if it relies on parental choice & private initiative -- the building blocks of success throughout our society.”

Milton Friedman (1912–2006) American economist, statistician, and writer

Education, Parent, Success

“Who is he?"
"An idiot, said Adrian. "Makes me look like an upstanding member of society.”

Richelle Mead book Last Sacrifice

Source: Last Sacrifice

“School is the advertising agency which makes you believe that you need the society as it is.”

Ivan Illich (1926–2002) austrian philosopher and theologist

School

“I don't like this world. I definitely do not like it. The society in which I live disgusts
me; advertising sickens me; computers make me puke.”

Michel Houellebecq book Whatever

Source: Whatever

World

“We live in a primitive time—don’t we, Will?—neither savage nor wise. Half measures are the curse of it. Any rational society would either kill me or give me my books.”

Thomas Harris Red Dragon

Source: Red Dragon

Books, Time

“Society has provided [children] no rituals by which they become members of the tribe, of the community. All children need to be twice born, to learn to function rationally in the present world, leaving childhood behind.”

Joseph Campbell The Power of Myth

Source: The Power of Myth

Children, World, Communication, Learning

“American long for a closed society in which everything can be bought, where laborers are either hidden away or dressed up as nonhumans, so as not to be disconcerting. This place is called Disney World”

Adam Gopnik book Paris to the Moon

Source: Paris to the Moon

World

“People who live in society have learned how to see themselves in mirrors as they appear to their friends. I have no friends. Is that why my flesh is so naked?”

Jean Paul Sartre book Nausea

Diary entry of Friday (2 February)
Source: Nausea (1938)

People, Learning, Appearance

“An average person with average talent, ambition and education can outstrip the most brilliant genius in our society, if that person has clear, focused goals.”

Brian Tracy (1944) American motivational speaker and writer

Education, Personality

“When childhood dies, its corpses are called adults and they enter society, one of the politer names of Hell. That is why we dread children, even if we love them. They show us the state of our decay.”

Brian W. Aldiss (1925–2017) British science fiction author

Quoted in the Manchester Guardian (31 December 1977), and Simpson’s Contemporary Quotations (1988) https://web.archive.org/web/20000709051930/http://www.bartleby.com/63/90/4790.html edited by James B. Simpson; Says Who?: A Guide To The Quotations Of The Century (1988) by Jonathon Green, p. 17 http://books.google.com/books?id=xUwOAQAAMAAJ&q=%22When+childhood+dies,+its+corpses+are+called+adults%22&dq=%22When+childhood+dies,+its+corpses+are+called+adults%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=KZO4U_WwFJSlqAaquoKoCg&ved=0CK0BEOgBMBk and The Concise Columbia Dictionary of Quotations (1989), p. 45 http://books.google.com/books?id=bs0J36MpieIC&pg=PA45&dq=%22When+childhood+dies,+its+corpses+are+called+adults%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=KZO4U_WwFJSlqAaquoKoCg&ved=0CEkQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=%22When%20childhood%20dies%2C%20its%20corpses%20are%20called%20adults%22&f=false

Love, Children, Hell, Childhood

“The romantics were prompted to seek exotic subjects and to travel to far off places. They failed to realize that, though the transcendental must involve the strange and unfamiliar, not everything strange or unfamiliar is transcendental. The unfriendliness of society to his activity is difficult for the artists to accept. Yet this very hostility can act as a lever for true liberation... Both the sense of community and of security depend on the familiar. Free of them, transcendental experiences become possible.”

Mark Rothko (1903–1970) American painter

Source: after 1970, posthumous, Abstract Expressionism, Creators and Critics', 1990, p. 167

Hostility, Travel, Communication, Sense

“If humans were to model the lifestyle displayed by healthy community of cells, our societies and our planet would be more peaceful and vital”

Bruce H. Lipton (1944) US biologist

Peace, Communication

“It taught me, at an early age, that being wrong can be dangerous, but being right, when society regards the majority’s falsehood as truth, could be fatal.”

Thomas Szasz (1920–2012) Hungarian psychiatrist

Source: The Myth of Mental Illness: Foundations of a Theory of Personal Conduct

Truth, Age

“A crowded society is a restrictive society; an overcrowded society becomes an authoritarian, repressive and murderous society.”

Edward Abbey (1927–1989) American author and essayist

Source: Postcards from Ed: Dispatches and Salvos from an American Iconoclast

“No two languages are ever sufficiently similar to be considered as representing the same social reality. The worlds in which different societies live are distinct worlds, not merely the same world with different labels attached.”

Amy Tan (1952) American novelist

World, Reality

“Do stuff. Be clenched, curious. Not waiting for inspiration's shove or society's kiss on your forehead.”

Susan Sontag (1933–2004) American writer and filmmaker, professor, and activist

Kiss, Waiting, Wise, Life

“Every society has the criminals it deserves.”

Emma Goldman (1868–1940) anarchist known for her political activism, writing, and speeches

Source: Red Emma Speaks

“The best things and best people rise out of their separateness; I'm against a homogenized society because I want the cream to rise.”

Robert Frost (1874–1963) American poet

As quoted in The Harper Book of Quotations (1993) edited by Robert I. Fitzhenry, p. 419
Undated

People

“Participating in Society in not a thing one can do naturally; one has to rehearse for it.”

Michel Faber book The Crimson Petal and the White

Source: The Crimson Petal and the White

Nature

“Societies in decline have no use for visionaries.”

Anaïs Nin (1903–1977) writer of novels, short stories, and erotica

“The Soul selects her own Society —
Then — shuts the Door —
To her divine Majority —
Present no more”

Emily Dickinson book The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson

303: The Soul selects her own Society --
The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson (1960)
Source: The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson

Soul

“Incredible. It never ceases to amaze Starkey how far society will go to protect the children it loves and to discard the ones it doesn’t.”

Neal Shusterman (1962) American novelist

Source: UnSouled

Love, Children

“The search for Nirvana, like the search for Utopia or the end of history or the classless society, is ultimately a futile and dangerous one. It involves, if it does not necessitate, the sleep of reason. There is no escape from anxiety and struggle.”

Christopher Hitchens book Love, Poverty, and War: Journeys and Essays

Source: Love, Poverty, and War: Journeys and Essays

History, Search, Sleep

“Who will guard the guards? If we're the guards of society, then who will watch us and make sure that we're not dangerous?”

Dan Brown book Digital Fortress

Source: Digital Fortress

“I took Punk to be the detonation of some slow-fused projectile buried deep in society's flank a decade earlier, and I took it to be, somehow, a sign.”

William Gibson (1948) American-Canadian speculative fiction novelist and founder of the cyberpunk subgenre

"Since 1948" (6 November 2002) http://www.williamgibsonbooks.com/source/source.asp Context: I took Punk to be the detonation of some slow-fused projectile buried deep in society's flank a decade earlier, and I took it to be, somehow, a sign. And I began, then, to write. And have been, ever since. Context: In 1977, facing first-time parenthood and an absolute lack of enthusiasm for anything like "career," I found myself dusting off my twelve-year-old's interest in science fiction. Simultaneously, weird noises were being heard from New York and London. I took Punk to be the detonation of some slow-fused projectile buried deep in society's flank a decade earlier, and I took it to be, somehow, a sign. And I began, then, to write. And have been, ever since.