Society Quotes

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  If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.

  John F. Kennedy

  Inspirational, Success, Helping Others

  Inaugural Address, 20 Jan. 1961

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• The true character of a society is revealed in how it treats its children.

  Nelson Mandela

  Children, Character, President

  Twitter post from Sep 18, 2016

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• Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.

  Mark Twain

  Inspirational, Motivational, Change

  Mark Twain (2016). “The Wit and Wisdom of Mark Twain”, p.97, Chartwell

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• The collapse of good conscience and the absence of accountability and public scrutiny have led to crimes against humanity and violations of international law.

  Nelson Mandela

  Law, Accountability, Humanity

  Nelson Mandela (2011). “Nelson Mandela By Himself: The Authorised Book of Quotations”, p.14, Pan Macmillan

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• Society exists only as a mental concept; in the real world there are only individuals.

  Oscar Wilde

  Real, Individuality, World

  29 Copy quote

• If God would have wanted us to live in a permissive society He would have given us Ten Suggestions and not Ten Commandments.

  Zig Ziglar

  Inspirational, God, Suggestions

  59 Copy quote

• The danger of the past was that men became slaves. The danger of the future is that man may become robots.

  Erich Fromm

  Anger, Future, Past

  The Sane Society (1955) ch. 9

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• Society is always taken by surprise at any new example of common sense.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Wise, Wisdom, Taken

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.3128, Delphi Classics

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• 

  No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world.

  Robin Williams

  Inspirational, Change, Philosophy

  "Robin Williams: Genie in the Lamp" by Alex Kip, www.huffingtonpost.com. August 14, 2014.

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• Widespread caffeine use explains a lot about the twentieth century.

  Greg Egan

  Use, Century, Caffeine

  14 Copy quote

• Society lives by faith, and develops by science.

  Henri Frederic Amiel

  Faith, This Society, Live By

  9 Copy quote

• Good-looking individuals are treated better than homely ones in virtually every social situation, from dating to trial by jury.

  Martha Beck

  Dating, Looking For Love, Trials

  25 Copy quote

• Most of the change we think we see in life is due to truths being in and out of favor.

  Robert Frost

  Inspirational, Life, Change

  North of Boston (1914) "Black Cottage"

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• Society honors its living conformists and its dead troublemakers.

  Mignon McLaughlin

  Freedom, Anger, Honor

  The Neurotic's Notebook ch. 7 (1963)

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• Society has always seemed to demand a little more from human beings than it will get in practice.

  George Orwell

  Anger, Practice, Demand

  "The Art of Donald McGill". Critical essay by George Orwell, 1941.

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• Formerly, when religion was strong and science weak, men mistook magic for medicine; now, when science is strong and religion weak, men mistake medicine for magic.

  Thomas Szasz

  Strong, Mistake, Men

  The Second Sin "Science and Scientism" (1973)

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• An armed society is a polite society.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Atheist, Gun, Libertarian

  Robert A. Heinlein (1960). “Beyond This Horizon”, Roc

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• Our society is not a community, but merely a collection of isolated family units.

  Valerie Solanas

  Community, Units, Collections

  Manifesto by Valerie Solanas, 1967.

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• The great society is a place where men are more concerned with the quality of their goods than with the quantity of their goods.

  Lyndon B. Johnson

  Men, Quality, Goods

  6 Copy quote

• These families, you know, are our upper crust, not upper ten thousand.

  James F. Cooper

  Thousand, Knows, Ten

  6 Copy quote

• We have a system that increasingly taxes work and subsidizes nonwork.

  Milton Friedman

  Lazy, Liberty, Paying Taxes

  84 Copy quote

• The sick individual finds himself at home with all other similarly sick individuals. The whole culture is geared to this kind of pathology. The result is that the average individual does not experience the separateness and isolation the fully schizophrenic person feels. He feels at ease among those who suffer from the same deformation; in fact, it is the fully sane person who feels isolated in the insane society - and he may suffer so much from the incapacity to communicate that it is he who may become psychotic.

  Erich Fromm

  Home, Average, Sick

  15 Copy quote

• Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we're being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I'm liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That's what's insane about it.

  John Lennon

  Life, Depression, Running

  "The Beatles Anthology". Book by The Beatles, 2000.

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• A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.

  Dwight D. Eisenhower

  Success, Witty, Memorial Day

  First Inaugural Address, delivered 20 January 1953

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• Boys, you must strive to find your own voice, because the longer you wait to begin the less likely you are to find it at all.

  Robin Williams

  Carpe Diem, Boys, Dead Poets Society

  "Ficitonal character: John Keating". "Dead Poets Society", www.imdb.com. 1989.

  68 Copy quote

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