Quotes About Society

All modern revolutions have ended in a reinforcement of the State.

As a remedy to life in society I would suggest the big city. Nowadays, it is the only desert within our means.

The purpose of a writer is to keep civilization from destroying itself.

I sometimes think of what future historians will say of us. A single sentence will suffice for modern man: He fornicated and read the papers.

All modern revolutions have ended in a reinforcement of the power of the State.

Retaliation is related to nature and instinct, not to law. Law, by definition, cannot obey the same rules as nature.

The society based on production is only productive, not creative.

For centuries the death penalty, often accompanied by barbarous refinements, has been trying to hold crime in check yet crime persists. Why? Because the instincts that are warring in man are not, as the law claims, constant forces in a state of equilibrium.

There will be no lasting peace either in the heart of individuals or in social customs until death is outlawed.

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.

Everyone would like to behave like a pagan, with everyone else behaving like a Christian.

Ne pas devenir pauvre avec une âme de pauvre. La misère avilit. Le pauvre devient laid et prend l'autobus, se lave moins, sent la transpiration, compte ses sous, perd sa seigneurie et ne peut plus sincèrement mépriser. On ne méprise bien peu ce que l'on possède et domine. Goethe méprisait mieux que Rousseau.

Perfection of means and confusion of goals seem - in my opinion - to characterize our age.

Confusion of goals and perfection of means seems, in my opinion, to characterize our age.

All our lauded technological progress -- our very civilization - is like the axe in the hand of the pathological criminal.

Nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced.

Concern for man and his fate must always form the chief interest of all technical endeavors. Never forget this in the midst of your diagrams and equations.

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

Politics is a pendulum whose swings between anarchy and tyranny are fueled by perpetually rejuvenated illusions.

I regard class differences as contrary to justice and, in the last resort, based on force.

Perfection of means and confusion of ends seem to characterize our age.

Bias against the Negro is the worst disease from which the society of our nation suffers.

Concern for man himself and his fate must always form the chief interest of all technical endeavor. Never forget this in the midst of your diagrams and equations.

Nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced. It is an open secret that the dangerous increase of crime in this counrty is closely related with this.