Civil Society Quotes - Page 4

• It is the duty of every man to render to the Creator such homage and such only as he believes to be acceptable to him. This duty is precedent, both in order of time and in degree of obligation, to the claims of Civil Society.

  James Madison

  Religious, Believe, Men

  James Madison, Ralph Ketcham “Selected Writings of James Madison”, Hackett Publishing

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• An initiative was essentially led by civil society because the policy of the government was that Africans must not be taught to graze in pastures which were reserved for the main white group.

  Nelson Mandela

  Government, White, Groups

  Source: www.mott.org

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• Most writers in Mexico have had posts as ambassadors, secretaries - that is no longer the case. Now a writer can live off writing. He has an audience: there are publishing houses, there are newspapers - so the situation is not as terrible as it used to be when there were no means and he had to go into government service, be an ambassador or a cabinet minister, etc. So, things are changing in the sense that the civil society is now the protagonist. The writer therefore occupies a different position, but no less influential than in the past, in a new, democratic society.

  Carlos Fuentes

  Writing, Mean, Past

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

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• Democracy is disruptive... there is no right in a democratic civil society to be free of disruption.

  Naomi Wolf

  Democracy, Politics, Disruption

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• [T]he task of abolishing the essence of Jewry is in truth the task of abolishing Jewry in civil society, abolishing the inhumanity of today's practice of life, the summit of which is the money system.

  Karl Marx

  Essence, Practice, Tasks

  Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels (1975). “The holy family”, p.148, Рипол Классик

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• I think that my emergence as a leader is closely related to the development of Taiwan's democracy. Taiwan's democracy was a gradual development. It was done from the bottom up. Therefore a lot of the more successful political leaders come from civil society, those that are closer to the grass-roots level of the public.

  Tsai Ing-wen

  Successful, Thinking, Leader

  Source: www.washingtonpost.com

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• I was in civil society long before I was ever in politics or my husband was ever even elected president.

  Hillary Clinton

  Husband, Long, President

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• In the past when money was given from government to government, there was no accountability, especially the World Bank loans. Nobody was held accountable for the misuse of World Bank loans. That is why it is important to channel some of the money through civil society groups.

  George W. Bush

  Past, Accountability, Important

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• Africa needs help, no question about that but I'd rather prefer that the money is channeled. That's what I call smart aid; it's channeled through African civil society groups. These are the groups which can be held more accountable. These are the groups which will sort of monitor how the aid money is spent.

  George W. Bush

  Smart, Helping, Aids

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• Every government has signed up to a voluntary legal commitment under at least one of the international covenants and conventions based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. But who is holding them to account? Our mission is to make it known that these conventions are good tools for civil society to hold their local authority, their government and businesses accountable.

  Mary Robinson

  Commitment, Rights, Government

  Source: www.who.int

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• If we want to make progress in key areas now, we have to build a multi-stakeholder process, harnessing the appropriate energies. So not only the politicians but also business, the wider civil society, and the trade union movement all have a contribution to make, whether it is at national or at international level.

  Mary Robinson

  Keys, Progress, Energy

  Source: www.egonzehnder.com

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• I think there is a richness that we enjoy from the diversity that comes from people coming from around the world. And I'm not opposed or afraid of immigrants. I just would like to see us follow the law. I think that gives everybody a clear roadmap on how we should operate as a civil society.

  Jack Williams

  Thinking, Law, Giving

  "What Happens When U.S. Immigration Rules Tighten? Let's Look To Alabama", kmuw.org. March 8, 2017.

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• If civil society has nobody who protects the law, then what kind of society is that?

  Ai Weiwei

  Law, Kind, Protect

  Source: www.spiegel.de

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• The social [media channel] isn't about beauty contests and popularity contests. They're a distortion, a caricature of the real thing. It's about trust, connection, and community. That's what there's too little of in today's mediascape, despite all the hoopla surrounding social tools. The promise of the Internet wasn't merely to inflate relationships, without adding depth, resonance, and meaning. It was to fundamentally rewire people, communities, civil society, business, and the state — through thicker, stronger, more meaningful relationships. That's where the future of media lies.

  Umair Haque

  Meaningful, Lying, Real

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• Any move by Israel to end the conflict with the Palestinians by unilateral moves - such as annexing the West Bank, delinking Gaza and declaring that there be no further diplomatic process - will lead to strong regional and global reactions, as well as intensify efforts at the UN and in civil society to brand Israel as an outlaw state dangerous to regional and world peace and guilty of criminal behavior.

  Richard A. Falk

  Strong, Moving, Israel

  Source: www.truth-out.org

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• Democracy is disruptive. Around the world, peaceful protesters are being demonised for this, but there is no right in a democratic civil society to be free of disruption. Protesters ideally should read Gandhi and King and dedicate themselves to disciplined, long-term, non-violent disruption of business as usual - especially disruption of traffic.

  Naomi Wolf

  Kings, Long, Peaceful

  "How to Occupy the moral and political high ground" by Naomi Wolf, www.theguardian.com. November 5, 2011.

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• Regarding African education in this country, there was a time when the government took no interest whatsoever in African education. It was the churches, that part of civil society, which bought land, built schools, and employed and paid teachers. People like myself, right from grade eight up to university, I was in missionary schools.

  Nelson Mandela

  Country, Teacher, School

  Source: www.mott.org

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• I hope I can tell you what happened in Europe and support you in your fight to preserve freedom for your children and your grandchildren, and tell them what I believe the Islamic threat is, and to discuss it with anybody - also people who don't agree with me. This is democracy. This is civil society. We should cherish that.

  Geert Wilders

  Children, Believe, Islamic

  Source: www.parlementairemonitor.nl

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• It is on balance desirable to encourage Universal Jurisdiction, and to create pressure from below to make application of such jurisdiction as consistent as possible. I think this will act as a deterrent in some situations, although this impact will never be acknowledged by those affected as it would only embolden civil society to intensify its pressures.

  Richard A. Falk

  Thinking, Impact, Balance

  Source: www.counterpunch.org

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• The beginning of civilisation is the discovery of some useful arts, by which men acquire property, comforts, or luxuries. The necessity or desire of preserving them leads to laws and social institutions. The discovery of peculiar arts gives superiority to particular nations ... to subjugate other nations, who learn their arts, and ultimately adopt their manners;- so that in reality the origin as well as the progress and improvement of civil society is founded in mechanical and chemical inventions.

  Humphry Davy

  Art, Science, Reality

  Sir Humphry Davy (1840). “Salmonia: or, Days of fly-fishing; in a series of conversations: with some account of the habits of fishes belonging to the genus Salmo. Consolation in travel, or, The last days of a philosopher”, p.351

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• Even if a civil society were to be dissolved by the consent of all its members (e.g., if a people inhabiting an island decided to separate and disperse throughout the world), the last murderer remaining in prison would first have to be executed, so that each has done to him what his deeds deserve and blood guilt does not cling to the people for not having insisted upon this punishment; for otherwise the people can be regarded as collaborators in his public violation of justice.

  Immanuel Kant

  Blood, Punishment, Islands

  Immanuel Kant, Mary J. Gregor (1999). “Practical Philosophy”, p.474, Cambridge University Press

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• If we have isolated individuals able to inflict enormous harm, imagine what a single lunatic can do with a nuclear weapon. I think the whole base of civil society is at risk.

  Joshua Lederberg

  Thinking, Risk, Able

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• Right now, American government has stepped back from offering any kinds of protection for human rights and public health. And the fossil fuel industry thinks that they have just absolute free rein to go for it. The one thing in the way is public opposition. It's civil society. It's activism.

  Annie Leonard

  Thinking, Human Rights, Kind

  Source: www.truth-out.org

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• I verily believe Christianity necessary to the support of civil society. One of the beautiful boasts of our municipal jurisprudence is that Christianity is a part of the Common Law... There never has been a period in which the Common Law did not recognize Christianity as lying its foundations.

  Joseph Story

  Beautiful, Lying, Believe

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• Russia is a country that has supported, propped up the worst of anti-democratic regimes in the Middle East, that has practiced - mistreated its own press, mistreated its own civil society, and economic intimidation of its neighbors, including invasion of its neighbors.I mean, this is the one country on the face of the earth with the capacity to obliterate the United States.

  Mark Shields

  Country, Mean, Earth

  Source: www.pbs.org

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