Quotes About Society

Someone who does not have any responsibility can feel very detached, 'Oh, I am doing nothing. I am free.' But that freedom has no value. If someone who is responsible for the whole of society, the whole kingdom can say, 'I am not doing anything' in spite of this responsible job; then that 'not doing' something is great. That is enlightenment.

And it is enough for the poet to be the guilty conscience of his time.

Komunisti?ko društvo lišava individuu svojih odgovornosti: uvijek su oni ti koji odlu?uju...Istina, svi kao i oni najbli?i Staljinu, davali su zlo?inu suprotan efekat. Mi smo zlo?ine prihvatili kao važne doprinose pobjedi socijalizma. Vjerovali smo kako je sve što ja?a politi?ku mo? komunisti?ke partije u SSSR i svijetu pobjeda za socijalizam. Nikada nismo mogli zamisliti da može biti sukoba u unutrašnjosti komunizma izmedju politike i etike.

La sociedad nazi futura debía ser construida alrededor de la «raza pura», la sociedad comunista futura alrededor de un pueblo proletario purificado de toda escoria burguesa.

Man, born in a family, is compelled to maintain society. Remove justice, and what are kingdoms but gangs of criminals on a large scale?

Every city is a living body.

And therefore God created only one single man, not, certainly, that he might be a solitary bereft of all society, but that by this means the unity of society and the bond of concord might be more effectually commended to him, men being bound together not only by similarity of nature, but by family affection. And indeed He did not even create the woman that was to be given him as his wife, as he created the man, but created her out of the man, that the whole human race might derive from one man.

But woe is thee, thou torrent of human custom! Who shall stand against thee?

But the holy angels, towards whose society and assembly we sigh while in this our toilsome pilgrimage, as they already abide in their eternal home, so do they enjoy perfect facility of knowledge and felicity of rest. It is without difficulty that they help us; for their spiritual movements, pure and free, cost them no effort.

Yet through virtuous living man is further ordained to a higher end, which consists in the enjoyment of God, as we have said above. Consequently, since society must have the same end as the individual man, it is not the ultimate end of an assembled multitude to live virtuously, but through virtuous living to attain to the possession of God.

I'm pretty sure if Socrates ever met a Kardashian, he'd have gone into the first bar and ordered himself a double hemlock straight up with a twist.

An 1888 police justice came right out and declared that for women only, simply being out at night was probable cause. The way he saw it, "no decent, respectable woman would be found in the street without an escort after 10 P.M.," and therefore, he told a Women's Prison Association investigator, "any woman alone in the street after that hour ought to be arrested." Accordingly, at night police would sometimes sweep up women by the dozens.

As Dio observed later, democracy sounded very well and good, "but its results are seen not to agree at all with its title. Monarchy, on the contrary, has an unpleasant sound, but is a most practical form of government to live under. For it is easier to find a single excellent man than many of them.

Power has for so long been a male construct that it distorted the shape of the first women who tried it on, only to find themselves in a sort of straitjacket.

Für viele Waren gibt es jetzt Plastikverpackungen; das Menschenfleisch aber wird immer noch in Zeitungspapier verpackt verkauft.

A writer should not run around with a mirror for his countrymen; he should tell his society and his times things no one ever thought before.

So long as authority inspires awe, confusion and absurdity enhance conservative tendencies in society. Firstly, because clear and logical thinking leads to a cumulation of knowledge (of which the progress of the natural sciences provides the best example) and the advance of knowledge sooner or later undermines the traditional order. Confused thinking, on the other hand, leads nowhere in particular and can be indulged indefinitely without producing any impact upon the world.

Very few people, including most scientists, realize that we have absolutely no proof that consciousness is actually produced by the brain and not even a remote notion of how something like that could possibly happen. In spite of it, this basic metaphysical assumption remains one of the leading myths of Western materialistic science and has a profound influence on our entire society.

Is it progress if a cannibal uses a fork?

Satirists, be careful. In the 1931 film by Rene Clair "Vive la Liberte" a song says, "Work is freedom." In 1940 the sign on the gates to Auschwitz said: "Arbeit macht frei.

Callin something a 'moral panic' does not imply that this something does not exist or happened at all and that reaction is based on fantasy, hysteria, delusion and illusion or being duped by the powerful.

Wij hebben geen onvervreemdbaar en 'natuurlijk' recht op het vrije woord. Elke samenleving zal bepaalde uitingen pornografisch of opruiend achten en taboe verklaren. De betekenis van zowel 'vrij' als 'woord' wordt doorlopend aangepast om aan de behoeften van de gemeenschap tegemoet te komen.

It may be that we are puppets-puppets controlled by the strings of society. But at least we are puppets with perception, with awareness. And perhaps our awareness is the first step to our liberation. (1974)

In a culture where profit has become the true God, self-sacrifice can seem incomprehensible rather than noble.