Social Contract Quotes - Page 3

• All in all, I am not surprised that the people who want to unravel the social contract start with young adults. Those who are urged to feel afraid, very afraid, have both the greatest sense of independence and the most finely honed skepticism about government.

  Ellen Goodman

  Government, People, Independence

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• Wall Street sees a social fabric or social contract as inefficiencies, which need to be removed.

  David Korten

  Wall, Needs, Fabric

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• But once you publish a book, doesn’t it by definition become the realm of public discourse? Otherwise, wouldn’t we just write books and print them out ourselves, and give them to specific people we felt comfortable giving them to–like gifts? Isn’t publishing sort of a social contract?

  Jonathan Evison

  Book, Writing, People

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• The intellectual and moral satisfaction that I failed to gain from the utilitarianism of Bentham and Mill, the revolutionary methods of Marx and Lenin, the social contract theory of Hobbes, the "back to nature" optimism of Rousseau, and the superman philosophy of Nietzsche, I found in the nonviolent resistance philosophy of Gandhi. I came to feel that this was the only morally and practically sound method open to oppressed people in their struggle for freedom.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Philosophy, Struggle, People

  Martin Luther King (Jr.) (1964). “A Martin Luther King Treasury”

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• What social safety net does is provide a glimmer of hope for what a democratic socialist society might look like. It makes the claim that without social provisions, without a welfare state, without a social contract, society can't survive. We need a foundation for people - economically, politically, and socially - where what the Right considers "entitlements" are really rights.

  Henry Giroux

  People, Safety, Welfare

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• Young people, under the social contract, suggest a long term investment. What we have today is a government that believes that young people - since they are a long term investment - are a liability. This is system that only believes in short-term investments.

  Henry Giroux

  Believe, Long, People

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• Morality is either a social contract or you have to pay cash.

  Stanislaw Jerzy Lec

  Cash, Pay, Morality

  "Unkempt Thoughts". Book by Stanisław Jerzy Lec, translated by Jacek Galazka, 1962.

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• The theory of social contracts extends as far back as Plato. However, it was the great 18th century social philosophers John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau who brought the concept of a social contract between citizens and governments sharply into political thinking, paving the way for popular democracy and constitutional republicanism.

  Simon Mainwaring

  Thinking, Government, Political

  "What #OccupyWallStreet Must Ask of Corporations and Themselves" by Simon Mainwaring, www.huffingtonpost.com. October 12, 2011.

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• We said that a single injustice, a single crime, a single illegality, particularly if it is officially recorded, confirmed, a single wrong to humanity, a single wrong to justice and to right, particularly if it is universally, legally, nationally, commodiously accepted, that a single crime shatters and is sufficient to shatter the whole social pact, the whole social contract, that a single legal crime, a single dishonorable act will bring about the loss of ones honor, the dishonor of a whole people. It is a touch of gangrene that corrupts the entire body.

  Charles Peguy

  Loss, People, Justice

  "Men and Saints". Book by Charles Péguy, transl. by Anne and Julian Green, p. 11, 1944.

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• In fact, I believe the first companies that make an effort to develop an authentic, transparent, and meaningful social contract with their fans and customers will turn out to be the ones that are the most successful in the future. While brands that refuse to make the effort will lose stature and customer loyalty.

  Simon Mainwaring

  Loyalty, Meaningful, Believe

  "What #OccupyWallStreet Must Ask of Corporations and Themselves" by Simon Mainwaring, www.huffingtonpost.com. October 12, 2011.

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• The real violence is committed in the writing of history, the records of the legal system, the reporting of news, through the manipulation of social contracts, and the control of information.

  Bryant H. McGill

  Real, Writing, News

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• Slaves lose everything in their chains, even the desire of escaping from them.

  Jean-Jacques Rousseau

  Escaping, Desire, Slavery

  Jean Jacques Rousseau (2015). “The Social Contract”, p.88, Jean Jacques Rousseau

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• There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own.

  Elizabeth Warren

  Country, Occupy Movement, Rich

  Elizabeth Warren (2014). “A Fighting Chance”, p.215, Metropolitan Books

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• There is peace in dungeons, but is that enough to make dungeons desirable?

  Jean-Jacques Rousseau

  Dungeons, Enough, Desirable

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• You built a factory out there, good for you. But I want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on the roads that the rest of us paid for. You hired workers that the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for.

  Elizabeth Warren

  Fire, Police, Occupy Movement

  "Elizabeth Warren: 'There Is Nobody in This Country Who Got Rich on His Own'". Campaign video clip, www.cbsnews.com. September 22, 2011.

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• In a well governed state, there are few punishments, not because there are many pardons, but because criminals are rare; it is when a state is in decay that the multitude of crimes is a gaurantee of impunity.

  Jean-Jacques Rousseau

  Punishment, Criminals, Decay

  Jean Jacques Rousseau (2015). “The Social Contract”, p.145, Jean Jacques Rousseau

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• Well, let's go back to the original intent of Social Security. It is an insurance contract.

  Chuck Hagel

  Social, Contracts, Wells

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• It is easier to conquer than to administer. With enough leverage, a finger could overturn the world; but to support the world, one must have the shoulders of Hercules.

  Jean-Jacques Rousseau

  Support, World, Conquer

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• The social pact, far from destroying natural equality, substitutes, on the contrary, a moral and lawful equality for whatever physical inequality that nature may have imposed on mankind; so that however unequal in strength and intelligence, men become equal by covenant and by right.

  Jean-Jacques Rousseau

  Men, May, Covenant

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• War then, is a relation - not between man and man but between state and state and individuals are enemies only accidentally not as men, nor even as citizens but as soldiers not as members of their country, but as its defenders

  Jean-Jacques Rousseau

  Country, War, Men

  Jean-Jacques Rousseau, G. D. H. Cole (2003). “On the Social Contract”, p.6, Courier Corporation

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• A born king is a very rare being.

  Jean-Jacques Rousseau

  Kings, Born

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• If there were a nation of Gods, it would govern itself democratically. A government so perfect is not suited to men.

  Jean-Jacques Rousseau

  Men, Perfect, Democracy

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• ...in respect of riches, no citizen shall ever be wealthy enough to buy another, and none poor enough to be forced to sell himself.

  Jean-Jacques Rousseau

  Citizens, Riches, Enough

  Jean-Jacques Rousseau, G. D. H. Cole (2003). “On the Social Contract”, p.34, Courier Corporation

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• The problem is to find a form of association which will defend and protect with the whole common force the person and goods of each associate, and in which each, while uniting himself with all, may still obey himself alone, and remain as free as before.

  Jean-Jacques Rousseau

  Government, Uniting, May

  Jean-Jacques Rousseau (2012). “On the Social Contract”, p.19, Courier Corporation

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• In the strict sense of the term, a true democracy has never existed, and never will exist.

  Jean-Jacques Rousseau

  Democracies Have, Democracy, Existence

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