quotations about society
Were it not for some small remainders of piety and virtue which are yet left scattered among mankind, human society would in a short space disband and run into confusion, and the earth would grow wild and become a forest.
JOHN TILLOTSON
"The Advantages of Religion to Societies", The Works of the Most Reverend Dr. John Tillotson
Individual societies begin in harmonious adaptation to the environment and, like individuals, quickly get trapped into nonadaptive, artificial, repetitive sequences. When the individual's behavior and consciousness get hooked to a routine sequence of external actions, he is a dead robot, and it is time for him to die and be reborn. Time to "drop out," "turn on," and "tune in."
TIMOTHY LEARY
The Politics of Ecstasy
Society would be a charming affair if we were only interested in one another.
CHAMFORT
The Cynic's Breviary
I do not think there is anything deserving the name of society to be found out of London.
WILLIAM HAZLITT
Table Talk
Man seeketh in society comfort, use, and protection.
FRANCIS BACON
Advancement of Learning
Put me to sleep or take me away
I don't want to be a part of this sick society
NASUM
"Escape"
That millions of people share the same forms of mental pathology does not make these people sane.
ERICH FROMM
The Sane Society
No entrance without any exit, no possible society without a spacious graveyard.
ERNST BLOCH
The Principle of Hope
We are all civilized people, which means that we are all savages at heart but observing a few amenities of civilized behavior.
TENNESSEE WILLIAMS
foreword, Sweet Bird of Youth
Show me a man or a woman alone and I'll show you a saint. Give me two and they'll fall in love. Give me three and they'll invent the charming thing we call 'society'. Give me four and they'll build a pyramid. Give me five and they'll make one an outcast. Give me six and they'll reinvent prejudice. Give me seven and in seven years they'll reinvent warfare. Man may have been made in the image of God, but human society was made in the image of His opposite number, and is always trying to get back home.
STEPHEN KING
The Stand
Society therefore is as ancient as the world.
VOLTAIRE
A Philosophical Dictionary
In the affluent society, no sharp distinction can be made between luxuries and necessaries.
JOHN KENNETH GALBRAITH
The Affluent Society
As long as men are men, a poor society cannot be too poor to find a right order of life, nor a rich society too rich to have need to seek it.
R. H. TAWNEY
The Acquisitive Society
Through mistaken indulgence Society leads us to develop faults of character. These faults of character often lead us to grave errors. Then Society tries to correct those errors. The means society employs are sometimes far more severe than wise. They do far more harm than good. And even where Society, by the usual weapon of punishment, may correct or check or even destroy those errors, the cause of the errors remains. And the cause makes more errors. Even while Society is in the act of dealing with some of the more grave errors among her children, the cause is at work making more errors, perhaps as grave, perhaps graver.
JOHN DANIEL BARRY
"Society: The Perfect Mother", Reactions and Other Essays Discussing Those States of Feeling and Attitude of Mind That Find Expression In Our Individual Qualities
A participation in rights and advantages forms the bond of political society; an institution prior, in the intention of nature, to the families and individuals from whom it is constituted.
ARISTOTLE
Politics
When you grow up as a girl, it is like there are faint chalk lines traced approximately three inches around your entire body at all times, drawn by society and often religion and family and particularly other women, who somehow feel invested in how you behave, as if your actions reflect directly on all womanhood.
M. E. THOMAS
Confessions of a Sociopath: A Life Spent Hiding in Plain Sight
Society is a chain of obligations, and its links must support each other;
The branch cannot but wither, that is cut from the parent vine.
MARTIN FARQUHAR TUPPER
Proverbial Philosophy
I'm just the subject of discussion now
The one no-one admires
I'm society's victim
I'm not just sufferin' from paranoia
It's invented by you and them
DISCHARGE
"Society's Victim"
The earth is much over-populated, hence that abominable institution called "Society."
ABRAHAM MILLER
Unmoral Maxims
Our society is changing so rapidly that none of us can know what it is or where it is going.
EDWIN H. LAND
testimony, The Public Television Act of 1967: Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Communications