Society Quotes - Page 24

• The privilege against self-incrimination is one of the great landmarks in man's struggle to make himself civilized... The Fifth is a lone sure rock in time of storm ... a symbol of the ultimate moral sense of the community, upholding the best in us.

  Erwin Griswold

  Struggle, Men, Rocks

  8 Copy quote

• Let me offer you, metaphorically, two magic wands that have sweeping powers to change society. With one wand you could wipe out all racism and discrimination from the hearts and minds of white America. The other wand you could wave across the ghettoes and barrios of America and infuse the inhabitants with Japanese or Jewish values, respect for learning, and ambition. ... I suggest that the best wand for society and for those who live in the ghettoes and barrios would be the second wand.

  Richard Lamm

  Ghetto, Heart, Ambition

  "Two Wands, One Nation: An Essay on Race and Community in America". Book by Richard Lamm, 2006.

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• The class of citizens who provide at once their own food and their own raiment, may be viewed as the most truly independent and happy. They are more: they are the best basis of public liberty, and the strongest bulwark of public safety. It follows, that the greater the proportion of this class to the whole society, the more free, the more independent, and the more happy must be the society itself.

  James Madison

  Independent, Class, Safety

  James Madison, David B. Mattern (1997). “James Madison's "Advice to My Country"”, p.12, University of Virginia Press

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The contempt for law and the contempt for the human consequences of lawbreaking go from the bottom to the top of American society.

  Margaret Mead

  Law, Contempt, Bottom

  "Impeachment?". Claire Safran, Redbook, April 1974.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• What a state of society is this in which freethinker is a term of abuse, and in which doubt is regarded as sin?

  William Winwood Reade

  Abuse, Doubt, Sin

  William Winwood Reade (1892). “The Martyrdom of Man”

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• Only when the human spirit is allowed to invent and create, only when individuals are given a personal stake in deciding economic policies and benefiting from their success - only then can societies remain economically alive, dynamic, prosperous, progressive and free.

  Ronald Reagan

  Alive, Spirit, Progressive

  Ronald Reagan (2004). “The uncommon wisdom of Ronald Reagan: a portrait in his own words”

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Imprisonment, as it exists today, is a worse crime than any of those committed by its victims.

  George Bernard Shaw

  Today, Crime, Victim

  George Bernard Shaw (1993). “The Complete Prefaces: 1914-1929”, Viking Adult

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Nobody can live in society without conventions. The reason why sensible people are as conventional as they can bear to be is that conventionality saves so much time and thought and trouble and social friction of one sort or another that it leaves them much more leisure time for freedom than unconventionality does.

  George Bernard Shaw

  People, Doe, Leisure

  11 Copy quote

• Nay, all laws must fall, human societies that subsist by them be dissolved, and all innocent persons be exposed to the violence of the most wicked, if men might not justly defend themselves against injustice by their own natural right, when the ways prescribed by publick authority cannot be taken.

  Algernon Sidney

  Fall, Taken, Men

  Algernon Sidney (1805). “Discourses on Government”, p.431

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• In a free society, individuals have the right to do right or wrong, as long as they don't threaten or infringe upon the rights or property of others.

  Mark Skousen

  Rights, Long, Individual

  7 Copy quote

• As against the "invisible hand" of Adam Smith, there has to be a visible hand of politicians whose objective is to have the kind of society that is caring and humane.

  Pierre Trudeau

  Caring, Hands, Invisible Hand

  Pierre Elliott Trudeau (1995). “Memoirs”, McClelland & Stewart Limited

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• Asked random questions about the First Amendment and how they would like to have it applied, if you believe in polls at all, the average American wants no part of it. But if you ask, 'What if we threw the Constitution away tomorrow?' the answer is 'No, that would be bad!' But living under the Constitution is another story altogether.

  Frank Zappa

  Believe, Average, What If

  5 Copy quote

• We must not overlook the role that extremists play. They are the gadflies that keep society from being too complacent or self-satisfied; they are, if sound, the spearhead of progress. If they are fundamentally wrong, free discussion will in time put an end to them.

  Abraham Flexner

  Science, Self, Play

  7 Copy quote

• Women with money and women in power are two uncomfortable ideas in our society.

  Candace Bushnell

  Inspiring, Money, Powerful

  8 Copy quote

• To act without clear understanding, to form habits without investigation, to follow a path all one's life without knowing where it really leads; such is the behavior of the multitude.

  Mencius

  Ignorance, Knowing, Understanding

  Mencius (1942). “The Book of Mencius: (abridged)”

  113 Copy quote

  Show source

• We are seeing the birth of a new perspective of the world, where ecology and economics are two sides of the same coin.

  Leif Johansson

  Two Sides, Perspective, Environmental

  44 Copy quote

• Economic advance is not the same thing as human progress.

  John Clapham

  Progress, Environmental, Prosperity

  46 Copy quote

• Society may predict, but only I can determine my destiny.

  Clare Oliver

  Motivational, Graduation, Destiny

  7 Copy quote

• Now the 21st century approaches and with it the inevitability of change. We must wonder if the American people will find renewal and rejuvenation within themselves, will discover again their capacity for innovation and adaptation. If not, alas, the nation's future will be shaped by sightless forces of history over which Americans will have no control.

  John Chancellor

  America, People, Innovation

  4 Copy quote

• It is incredible how as soon as a people become subject, it promptly falls into such complete forgetfulness of its freedom that it can hardly be roused to the point of regaining it, obeying so easily and willingly that one is led to say that this people has not so much lost its liberty as won its enslavement.

  Etienne de La Boetie

  Fall, People, Liberty

  31 Copy quote

• We might expect intelligent life and technological communities to have emerged in the universe billions of years ago. Given that human society is only a few thousand years old, and that human technological society is mere centuries old, the nature of a community with millions or even billions of years of technological and social progress cannot even be imagined. ... What would we make of a billion-year-old technological community?

  Paul Davies

  Science, Intelligent, Years

  9 Copy quote

• With full responsibility for my words as a professional biologist, I do not hesitate to say that all existing and genuine knowledge about the way in which the physical characteristics of human communities are related to their cultural capabilities can be written on the back of a postage stamp.

  Lancelot Hogben

  Knowledge, Responsibility, Science

  Lancelot Thomas Hogben (1940). “Dangerous Thoughts”

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• When they took the Fourth Amendment, I was silent because I don't deal drugs. When they took the Sixth Amendment, I kept quiet because I know I'm innocent. When they took the Second Amendment, I said nothing because I don't own a gun. Now they've come for the First Amendment, and I can't say anything at all.

  Tim Freeman

  Gun, Collecting Things, Drug

  69 Copy quote

• Honor is better than honors.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Business, Integrity, Honor

  43 Copy quote

• There are some weapons that are just so dangerous that society has a right and the obligation even to take those weapons out of circulation.

  James Florio

  Gun, Weapons, Dangerous

  6 Copy quote