Society Quotes - Page 27

• Society soon grows used to any state of things which is imposed upon it without explanation.

  Edith Wharton

  Used, States, Explanation

  Edith Wharton (2008). “Old New York”, p.227, Simon and Schuster

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• If mankind had wished for what is right, they might have had it long ago.

  William Hazlitt

  Peace, Long Ago, Might

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1924, Delphi Classics

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• Accidents will occur in the best-regulated families; and in families not regulated by that pervading influence which sanctifies while it enhances... in short, by the influence of Woman, in the lofty character of Wife, they may be expected with confidence, and must be borne with philosophy.

  Charles Dickens

  Family, Philosophy, Character

  Charles Dickens (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Charles Dickens (Illustrated)”, p.4671, Delphi Classics

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• A man in public life expects to be sneered at -- it is the fault of his elevated situation, and not of himself.

  Charles Dickens

  Men, Faults, Situation

  "The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby". Book by Charles Dickens, Ch. 14, 1838 - 1839.

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• Quarrels are the dowry which married folk bring one another.

  Ovid

  Marriage, Dowry, Married

  Ovid (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ovid (Illustrated)”, p.316, Delphi Classics

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• A man perfects himself by working. Foul jungles are cleared away, fair seed-fields rise instead, and stately cities; and with the man himself first ceases to be a jungle, and foul unwholesome desert thereby. The man is now a man.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Work, Men, Cities

  Thomas Carlyle (2016). “Past and Present: The Historian”, p.189, 北戴河出版

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• There is no comparing the brutality and cynicism of today's pop culture with that of forty years ago: from High Noon to Robocop is a long descent.

  Charles Krauthammer

  Years, Long, Brutality

  International Herald Tribune, October 31, 1990.

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• Two things in America are astonishing: the changeableness of most human behavior and the strange stability of certain principles. Men are constantly on the move, but the spirit of humanity seems almost unmoved.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Moving, Men, Two

  Alexis de Tocqueville (2003). “Democracy in America”, p.708, Regnery Publishing

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• Societies are healthiest when their radius of trust is broad and when people feel they can influence their own fate.

  James Fallows

  Fate, People, Influence

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• Successful societies-those which progress economically and politically and can control the terms on which they deal with the outside world-succeed because they have found ways to match individual self-interest to the collective good.

  James Fallows

  Successful, Self, Progress

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• So far as I have myself observed, the distinctive character of a child is to live always in the tangible present.

  John Ruskin

  Children, Character, Tangible

  "Aratra Pentelici: Six Lectures on the Elements of Sculpture, Given Before the University of Oxford in Michaelmas Term, 1870".

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

  Candace Bushnell

  Inspiring, Money, Powerful

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• 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)”

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• 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

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

  John Clapham

  Progress, Environmental, Prosperity

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

  Clare Oliver

  Motivational, Graduation, Destiny

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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”

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• 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

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• Honor is better than honors.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Business, Integrity, Honor

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• 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

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• This extraordinary metal, the soul of every manufacture, and the mainspring perhaps of civilised society. Of iron.

  Samuel Smiles

  Science, Civilization, Iron

  Samuel Smiles (2010). “Men of Invention and Industry”, p.87, BoD – Books on Demand

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• 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.

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