Quotes About Society

You're saying,' he said, weighing each word, 'that we should send Carrot away to be a duck among humans because Bjorn Stronginthearm is my uncle.

Governments govern, but prime ministers and presidents do not personally turn up in people's homes to tell them how to run their lives, because of the mortal danger this would present. There are laws instead.

Barbarism? Hah! When we kills people we do it there and then, lookin' 'em in the eye, and we'd be happy to buy 'em a drink in the next world, no harm done. I never knew a barbarian who cut up people slowly in little rooms, or tortured women to make 'em look pretty, or put poison in people's grub. Civilization? If that's civilization, you can shove it where the sun don't shine!

You can be any sex you like provided you act male. There's no men and women in the Watch, just a bunch of lads.

Every society needs a cry like that, but only in a very few do they come out with the complete, unvarnished version, which is "Remember-The-Atrocity-Committed-Against-Us-Last-Time-That-Will-Excuse-The-Atrocity-That-We're-About-To-Commit-Today! And So On! Hurrah!

I wonder what's the difference between ordinary councillors and privy councillors? wondered the merchant aloud. The assassin scowled at him. I think, he said, it is because you're expected to eat shit.

Los historiadores han observado que es en las épocas de abundancia cuando se siente el deseo de ir a la guerra. En tiempos de hambruna, la gente está demasiado ocupada intentando encontrar algo que comer. Cuando sólo tienen lo justo para ir tirando, las personas tienden a ser afables y educadas. Pero cuando se les sirve un banquete, enseguida deciden que ha llegado el momento de discutir quién se sienta dónde.

It always embarrassed Samuel Vimes when civilians tried to speak to him in what they thought was "policeman." If it came to that, he hated thinking of them as civilians. What was a policeman, if not a civilian with a uniform and a badge? But they tended to use the term these days as a way of describing people who were not policemen. It was a dangerous habit: once policemen stopped being civilians the only other thing they could be was soldiers.

In fact the Guild, he liked to think, practiced the ultimate democracy. You didn't need intelligence, social position, beauty or charm to hire it. You just needed money which, unlike the other stuff, was available to everyone. Except for the poor, of course, but there was no helping some people.

Where there are policemen there's crime, sergeant, remember that.

One said, Tell us…what is it like? "What is what like?" One said, Being insane. Being human.

Most people will shy away from killing people they haven't been introduced to.

He always says that,' muttered Vimes as the two men hurried down the stairs. 'He knows I don't like being married to a duchess.' 'I thought you and Lady Sybil-' 'Oh, being married to Sybil is fine, fine,' said Vimes hurriedly. 'It's just the duchess bit I don't like.

The best man. You know? He hands you the ring and has to marry the bride if you ran away and so on. The Dean's been reading up on it, haven't you, Dean? Oh, yes, said the Dean, who'd spent all the previous day with Lady Deirdre Waggon's Book of Etiquette. She's got to marry someone once she's turned up. You can't have unmarried brides flapping around the place, being a danger to society. I completely forgot about a best man! said Vimes.

This was, after all, Ankh-Morpork, where a man walked free even if he was not, strictly speaking, a man.

At times like this it's traditional that a hero comes forth, said the President of the Guild of Assassins. A dragon slayer. Where is he, that's what I want to know? Why aren't our schools turning out young people with the skills society needs?

He was hanged, and then much later they put up a statue to him, which tells you more about people than you might wish to know.

It's political, sir. Apparently he wants a return to the values and traditions that made the city great, sir.' 'Does he know what those values and traditions were?' said Vimes, aghast. 'I assume so, sir,' said Carrot, keeping a straight face. 'Oh my gods. I'd rather take a chance on the lobsters.

I wonder how it is we have come to this place in our society where art and nature are spoke in terms of what is optional, the pastime and concern of the elite?

The danger is in what we codify, commodify, and exploit.

Silence introduced in a society that worships noise is like the Moon exposing the night. Behind darkness is our fear. Within silence our voice dwells. What is required from both is that we be still. We focus. We listen. We see and we hear. The unexpected emerges.

It is not possible to satisfy women, a friend said. We are disturbed if we have children too young. Disturbed if we have then later. Disturbed if we don't have children at all.

Species other than man have rights, too. Having finished all the requisites of our proud, materialistic civilization, our neon-lit society, does nature, which is the basis of our existence, have the right to live on? Do we have enough reverence for life to concede to wilderness this right?

For all of us, Acadia is another breathing space. Perhaps that is what parks are - breathing spaces for a society that increasingly holds its breath. Here on the edge of the continent in this marriage between wind and sea, the weaving of currents offers a tapestry of belief.