Quotes About Society

Yo era el único que no tenía tuberculosis. Fingía padecer una afección cardíaca. Vivíamos en unos años en los que era preciso estar en posesión de una de estas dos cosas: medallas o enfermedades.

Perché siamo giunti a una società del genere? Perché viviamo in un'era in cui tutto ciò che era puro è stato contaminato?

Kendini, göklerden de büyük bir halkan?n ortas?na hapsolmuÅŸ buldun; bunun d???ndaki her ÅŸey s?radan. Bizlerin salt otlat?lmak için d??ar?ya ç?kar?ld???m?z? kavram??s?n. GevÅŸek bir ipe baÄŸlanm??, cahil hayvanlar olduÄŸumuzu.

The estrangement of body and spirit in modern society is an almost universal phenomenon, and there is nobody—the reader may feel—who would fail to deplore it; so that to prate emotionally about the body "thinking" or the "loquacity" of the flesh is going too far, and by using such phrases I am merely covering up my own confusion.

Los japoneses a diferencia de los americanos, no sufren conflictos interiores por causa de una severa conciencia puritana, pero sí muestran sus neurosis provocadas por el particular sistema de vida en las ciudades.

Other people are all witnesses. If no other people exists, shame would never be born in the world.

A más cultura, peor visión sexual.

Estos anuncios dolían a Yuichi. Sin poder evitarlo, le obligaban a pensar que la sociedad se basaba en la heterosexualidad, ese principio, enojoso hasta la exasperación, establecido por la mayoría.

Comprendo que en América la psicoterapia se haya convertido en algo similar a eso, porque se trata de una moda estúpida que no intenta más que uniformar a la humanidad, rica y variada; una moda que instruye a los seres mediocres deseosos de llevar una a una a las ovejas descarriadas al redil del conformismo.

Why, why?" he thought, gritting his teeth. "Why are people not allowed to do what is most beautiful, when ugly, shoddy acts, acts for the sake of gain, are all freely allowed?

la escuela, el colegio, no es sino una sociedad en miniatura. Por eso nos están dando órdenes continuamente. Un puñado de ciegos nos dice lo que tenemos que hacer, y hace trizas nuestras ilimitadas facultades.

We live in an age in which there is no heroic death.

Simple femininity is the most important thing about a woman, and it is a quality a great many women are in jeopardy of losing. Women are being emancipated out of their femininity in this modern age.

China is the greatest mystifying and stupefying fact in the modern world.

While in the West, the insane are so many that they are put in an asylum, in China the insane are so unusual that we worship them.

How do you cause people to believe in an imagined order such as Christianity, democracy or capitalism? First, you never admit that the order is imagined.

History is something that very few people have been doing while everyone else was ploughing fields and carrying water buckets.

Biology enables, Culture forbids.

Money is the most universal and most efficient system of mutual trust ever devised.

Large numbers of strangers can cooperate successfully by believing in common myths. Any large-scale human cooperation – whether a modern state, a medieval church, an ancient city or an archaic tribe – is rooted in common myths that exist only in people's collective imagination.

There are no gods, no nations, no money and no human rights, except in our collective imagination.

Every day millions of people decide to grant their smartphone a bit more control over their lives or try a new and more effective antidepressant drug. In pursuit of health, happiness and power, humans will gradually change first one of their features and then another, and another, until they will no longer be human.

At present, people are happy to give away their most valuable asset—their personal data—in exchange for free email services and funny cat videos. It's a bit like African and Native American tribes who unwittingly sold entire countries to European imperialists in exchange for colorful beads and cheap trinkets.

People easily understand that 'primitives' cement their social order by believing in ghosts and spirits, and gathering each full moon to dance together around the campfire. What we fail to appreciate is that our modern institutions function on exactly the same basis.