Society Quotes: Reflections on Our World

"A society that has more justice is a society that needs less charity"

Ralph Nader, Lawyer

"All that is valuable in human society depends upon the opportunity for development accorded the individual"

Albert Einstein, Physicist

"Like its politicians and its war, society has the teenagers it deserves"

Joseph Priestley, Scientist

"Without culture, and the relative freedom it implies, society, even when perfect, is but a jungle. This is why any authentic creation is a gift to the future"

Albert Camus, Philosopher

"Civilized society is perpetually menaced with disintegration through this primary hostility of men towards one another"

Sigmund Freud, Psychologist

"Sports serve society by providing vivid examples of excellence"

George Will, Journalist

"The reconnection of society, economy and ethics is a project we cannot postpone"

Michael D. Higgins, Politician

"We must stop thinking of the individual and start thinking about what is best for society"

Hillary Clinton, Politician

"Society is now one polished horde, formed of two mighty tries, the Bores and Bored"

Lord Byron, Poet

"He who is unable to live in society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for himself, must be either a beast or a god"

Aristotle, Philosopher

"It's not just the effect of technology on the environment, on religion, on the economic structure, on society, on politics, etc. It's that everything now exists in technology to the point where technology is the new and comprehensive host of nature of life"

Godfrey Reggio, Director

"If you say, I'm for equal pay, that's a reform. But if you say. I'm a feminist, that's a transformation of society"

Gloria Steinem, Activist

"Having soon discovered to be great, I must appear so, and therefore studiously avoided mixing in society, and wrapped myself in mystery, devoting my time to fasting and prayer"

Nat Turner, Activist

"What can you say about a society that says that God is dead and Elvis is alive?"

Irv Kupcinet, Journalist

"I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them but to inform their discretion"

Thomas Jefferson, President

"A civilized society is one which tolerates eccentricity to the point of doubtful sanity"

Robert Frost, Poet

"In a multi-racial society, trust, understanding and tolerance are the cornerstones of peace and order"

Kamisese Mara, Statesman

"After a shooting spree, they always want to take the guns away from the people who didn't do it. I sure as hell wouldn't want to live in a society where the only people allowed guns are the police and the military"

William S. Burroughs, Writer

"All you now do is pursue your private objectives within society. Instead of us being a community, everybody is asked to seek their own personal ends. It's called competition. And competition is antagonism"

Edward Bond, Playwright

"Hip-hop reflects the truth, and the problem is that hip-hop exposes a lot of the negative truth that society tries to conceal. It's a platform where we could offer information, but it's also an escape"

Busta Rhymes, Musician

"A liberal education is at the heart of a civil society, and at the heart of a liberal education is the act of teaching"

A. Bartlett Giamatti, Educator

"What's happened with society is that we have created these devices, computers, which already can register and process huge amounts of information, which is a significant fraction of the amount of information that human beings themselves, as a species, can process"

Seth Lloyd, Educator

"Humor results when society says you can't scratch certain things in public, but they itch in public"

Tom Walsh, Celebrity

"I think being different, going against the grain of society is the greatest thing in the world"

Elijah Wood, Actor

"Amongst Women concentrated on the family, and the new book concentrates on a small community. The dominant units in Irish society are the family and the locality. The idea was that the whole world would grow out from that small space"

John McGahern, Writer

"But we don't have an example of a democratic society existing in a socialist economy - which is the only real alternative to capitalism in the modern world"

Peter L. Berger, Sociologist

"As long as you have a system that is based on the rational that if you are making money you are thereby making a contribution to society, these financial rogue practices will continue"

David Korten, Activist

"Mass media provides the essential link between the individual and the demands of the technological society"

Jacques Ellul, Philosopher

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

Oscar Wilde, Dramatist

"Freedom in art, freedom in society, this is the double goal towards which all consistent and logical minds must strive"

Victor Hugo, Author

"That sort of half sigh, which, accompanied by two or three slight nods of the head, is pity's small change in general society"

Charles Dickens, Novelist

"To assert in any case that a man must be absolutely cut off from society because he is absolutely evil amounts to saying that society is absolutely good, and no-one in his right mind will believe this today"

Albert Camus, Philosopher

"Neither the life of an individual nor the history of a society can be understood without understanding both"

C. Wright Mills, Sociologist

"If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich"

John F. Kennedy, President

"Comedy, we may say, is society protecting itself - with a smile"

J.B. Priestley, Writer

"Individual commitment to a group effort - that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work"

Vince Lombardi, Coach

"Society is not a disease, it is a disaster. What a stupid miracle that one can live in it"

Emile M. Cioran, Philosopher

"To love our neighbor as ourselves is such a truth for regulating human society, that by that alone one might determine all the cases in social morality"

John Locke, Philosopher

"The historic ascent of humanity, taken as a whole, may be summarized as a succession of victories of consciousness over blind forces - in nature, in society, in man himself"

Leon Trotsky, Revolutionary

"Mystical references to society and its programs to help may warm the hearts of the gullible but what it really means is putting more power in the hands of bureaucrats"

Thomas Sowell, Economist

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