Quotes About Community

On one side, interaction with others sharpens our minds and deepens our understanding. But it also teaches us about our obligations toward others—

But that community still exists, Aristotle argues, in order to make the householder happy, rather than the other way around.

For Aristotle, diversity is the keynote of the free society, and free exchange lies at its heart. In the true (as opposed to the ideal) political community there must be a diversity of social roles

It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner

the pursuit of our own self-interest actually causes us to reach out to others.

As in old Edinburgh, drink opened the doors for free intellectual exchange. The

these were quiet unassuming men and women. They went to work in their shops and counting houses, raised their children to be good Catholics, and gave generously to their local parish. If some made fortunes, they never dreamed of rising above their station or challenging existing authority. All they asked was to be left alone to pray and read their devotional tracts and follow the orthodoxies of the Church.

The highest form of life, Aristotle said, was that of the householder, who "as a citizen shared in the civic life of ruling and being ruled in turn."5 That certainly sounded a lot like life in 1402 Florence as well as fifth-century BCE Athens.

So the basis of Aristotle's secure and stable order is not the Philosopher Ruler, but the good citizen who participates actively in the political, social, and economic life of his community.

Furthermore, the citizen contributed to this free self-governing community in not one but two ways. First, he practiced the virtues of the free man, including cultivating and growing the fruits of his economic freedom—something the average Florentine merchant or shopkeeper certainly understood. Second, he contributed by becoming an active part of civic life.

In short, a democracy like Athens or a republic like Florence was a cooperative partnership, in which men agree to be the best they can be in both their public and their private lives, instead of (as in Plato's Republic) having those rules imposed from above. Only under liberty could men realize their true nature as human beings both as free individuals and as part of a greater whole.

All the great peoples of democracy . . . have taken that place in the battle that was destined for them. They work for the triumph not of one alone, but of all."10

Augustine's formula, with its conscious echoes of Plato's Republic, remains the basis of the Western idea of a church to this day: Catholic or Protestant, Methodist or Mormon. This is the idea of the church as a community, whose members share the same values and beliefs and who are bound together in their dedication to love God as they love one another; and to serve His commands rather than those of some bureaucrat or politician.

For Augustine, all true community depends on God's grace. Someday, perhaps Christianity and Christendom will be the same. But not yet, he said to himself

harassment of individual German Americans became commonplace.

In Avoca, Pennsylvania, an Austrian American was accused of criticizing the Red Cross. A group of vigilantes tied him up, hoisted him thirty feet in the air, and blasted him with water from a fire hose for a full hour.

In civilized society [a person] stands at all times in need of the cooperation and assistance of great multitudes," Smith wrote, "while his whole life is scarce sufficient to gain the friendship of a few persons.

If co-operation, is thus the lifeblood of science and technology, it is similarly vital to society as a whole.

His Majesty's Government view with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.

Kleur heb je nooit zelf, kleur krijg je door anderen.

Het is verstandig bang te zijn voor elke groep waartoe je niet behoort.

Cliques are groups, groups are great, great are cliques of people.

Without alienation, there can be no politics.

A good newspaper is a nation talking to itself.