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Quotations about society

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

 - Isaac Asimov

Tags:   knowledge  science  society  wisdom  

John LennonOur 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.

 - John Lennon

Tags:   insanity  maniacs  society  

Samuel AdamsAll men have a right to remain in a state of nature as long as they please; and in case of intolerable oppression, civil or religious, to leave the society they belong to, and enter into another.

 - Samuel Adams

Tags:   oppression  rights  society  

James BaldwinThe most dangerous creation of any society is the man who has nothing to lose.

 - James Baldwin

Tags:   society  

James MadisonWhat influence in fact have ecclesiastical establishments had on Civil Society? In some instances they have been seen to erect a spiritual tyranny on the ruins of the Civil authority; in many instances they have been seen upholding the thrones of political tyranny: in no instance have they been seen the guardians of the liberties of the people. Rulers who wished to subvert the public liberty, may have found an established Clergy convenient auxiliaries.

 - James Madison

Tags:   power  religion  society  tyranny  

Marilyn MonroeTo all the girls that think you're fat because you're not a size zero, you're the beautiful one, its society who's ugly.

 - Marilyn Monroe

Tags:   fat  size  society  weight  

A society based upon the principle of individual liberty is a society of which the members are supposed to be gifted with the virtues of prudence, industry, and self-control; virtues of this nature are indeed essential to the existence of such a form of society. Unfortunately, a certain portion of its members do not possess them even in an elementary degree, and no amount of seclusion in prison will ever confer these qualities upon them. Imprisonment, to be followed by liberty, however rigorous it is made, is accordingly no solution of the difficulty; the only effective way of dealing with the incorrigible vagrant, drunkard, and thief, is by some system of permanent seclusion in a penal colony. All men are not fitted for freedom, and so long as society acts on the supposition that they are, it will never get rid of the incorrigible criminal.

 - William Morrison

Tags:   criminals  freedom  prison  society  

Garry KasparovSolving new problems is what keeps us moving forward as individuals and as a society, so don't back down.

 - Garry Kasparov

Tags:   perseverance  problems  progress  society  

George KennanA political society does not live to conduct foreign policy; it would be more correct to say that it conducts foreign policy in order to live.

 - George Frost Kennan

Tags:   foreign policy  society  

Ron PaulThe most important element of a free society, where individual rights are held in the highest esteem, is the rejection of the initiation of violence.

 - Ron Paul

Tags:   freedom  rights  society  violence  

Thomas PaineSome writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not only different, but have different origins. Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness POSITIVELY by uniting our affections, the latter NEGATIVELY by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first a patron, the last a punisher.

 - Thomas Paine

Thomas PaineSociety in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one; for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries by a government, which we might expect in a country without government, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer.

 - Thomas Paine

Thomas SowellIf you cannot achieve equality of performance among people born to the same parents and raised under the same roof, how realistic is it to expect to achieve it across broader and deeper social divisions?

 - Thomas Sowell

Tags:   equality  siblings  society  

Friedrich HayekHere I may perhaps mention that only because men are in fact unequal can we treat them equally. If all men were completely equal in their gifts and inclinations, we should have to treat them differently in order to achieve any sort of social organization. Fortunately, they are not equal; and it is only owing to this that the differentiation of functions need not be determined by the arbitrary decision of some organizing will but that, after creating formal equality of the rules applying in the same manner to all, we can leave each individual to find his own level.

 - Friedrich Hayek

Tags:   equality  individuality  rules  society  talents