Quotes About Society

CIVILIZATION. A concerted effort to remedy the blunders and check the practical joking of God.

There was no such thing as civilization until individuals ceased carrying arms, and agreed to refer their differences to the courts.

We are creatures trapped in culture.

I think a civilization is created out of some kind of sublimation of violence. When the violence gets too sublimated, you get a sick civilization.

God is muttering something about love, peace, and happiness, but we can't hear him over society's deafening uproar.

It is an interesting question how far men would retain their relative rank if they were divested of their clothes.

Strip the human race, absolutely naked, and it would be a real democracy. But the introduction of even a rag of tiger skin, or a cowtail, could make a badge of distinction and be the beginning of a monarchy.

What gown and what head-dress she should wear on the occasion became her chief concern. She cannot be justified in it. Dress is at all times a frivolous distinction, and excessive solicitude about it often destroys its own aim...

UNIVERSITY... In the great American universities men are ranked as follows: 1. Seducers; 2. Fullbacks; 3. Boozefighters; 4. Pitchers and Catchers; 5. Poker players; 6. Scholars...

...a commonwealth ruled by common-sense and common virtue...

The fabric of our complex society is woven too tightly to permit any part of it to be damaged without damaging the whole.

a sea of artificial lights has extinguished the stars and drowned the nights

The toughest part of a diet isn't watching what you eat. It's watching what other people eat.

In the 1960s, people took acid to make the world weird. Now the world is weird, and people take Prozac to make it normal.

Jails and state prisons are the complement of schools: so many less as you have of the latter, so many more must you have of the former.

All the people like us are We. And every one else is They. And They live over the sea. While We live over the way. But — would you believe it? — They look upon We As only a sort of They!...

The income tax has made more liars out of the American people than golf has.

But when there is a lack of honor in government, the morals of the whole people are poisoned.

If the English language had been properly organised by a businessman or Member of Parliament, then there would be a word which meant both "he" and "she", and I could write, "If John or Mary comes heesh will want to play tennis", which would save a lot of trouble.

A cross-section of our society to-day represents the entire geological formation of human nature for 40,000 years. We need but look on the faces of the men about us as we go down the street. All history is here this minute.

People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them.

History in general only informs us what bad government is.

The game of history is usually played by the best and the worst over the heads of the majority in the middle.

All we hear is "What's the matter with the country?" "What's the matter with the world?" There ain't but one thing wrong with every one of us in the world, and that's selfishness.