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Society quotes

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“Society is no comfort to one not sociable.” William Shakespeare, “Cymbeline” - 1623

“People who live in society have learned how to see themselves in mirrors as they appear to their friends.” Jean-Paul Sartre, “Nausea” - 1938

“Anything we want, we're trained to want.” Chuck Palahniuk, “Invisible Monsters” - 1999

“Hence I have no mercy or compassion in me for a society that will crush people, and then penalize them for not being able to stand up under the weight.” Malcolm X, “The Autobiography of Malcolm X” - 1965

“If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.” John F. Kennedy, “Inaugural Address” - 20 January 1961

“Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage's whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men.” Ayn Rand, “The Fountainhead” - 1943

“Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members.” Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Self-Reliance” - 1841

“I am alone in the midst of these happy, reasonable voices. All these creatures spend their time explaining, realizing happily that they agree with each other. In Heaven’s name, why is it so important to think the same things all together.” Jean-Paul Sartre, “Nausea” - 1938

“All conditioning aims at that: making people like their unescapable social destiny.” Aldous Huxley, “Brave New World” - 1932

“No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable.” Adam Smith, “The Wealth of Nations” - 1776

“Other people are quite dreadful. The only possible society is oneself.” Oscar Wilde, “An Ideal Husband” - 1895

“We are faced not with two separate crises, one environmental and the other social, but rather with one complex crisis which is both social and environmental.” Pope Francis, “Laudato si'” - 24 May 2015

“When red-headed people are above a certain social grade their hair is auburn.” Mark Twain, “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court” - 1889

“I had noticed that both in the very poor and very rich extremes of society the mad were often allowed to mingle freely.” Charles Bukowski, “Ham on Rye” - 1982

“Society is endangered not by the great profligacy of a few, but by laxity of morals amongst all.” Alexis de Tocqueville, “Democracy in America” - 1840

“Yet command and obedience are but unfortunate necessities of human life: society in equality is its normal state.” John Stuart Mill, “The Subjection of Women” - 1869

“Hence Capital is reckless of the health or length of life of the labourer, unless under compulsion from society.” Karl Marx, “Das Kapital” - 1867

“What I condemn are our system of values and the men who don't acknowledge how great, difficult, but ultimately beautiful women's share in society is.” Anne Frank, “The Diary of a Young Girl” - 1947

“She belonged to that one of the two divisions of the human race in which the untiring curiosity which the other half feels about the people whom it does not know is replaced by an unfailing interest in the people whom it does.” Marcel Proust, “Swann's Way” - 1913

“Force is the midwife of every old society pregnant with a new one.” Karl Marx, “Das Kapital” - 1867

“Of more worth is one honest man to society and in the sight of God, than all the crowned ruffians that ever lived.” Thomas Paine, “Common Sense” - 1776

“what is reality? . . . It’s whatever the majority deems it to be. It’s not necessarily the best or the most logical, but it’s the one that supports the desires of society as a whole.” Paulo Coelho, “Veronika Decides to Die” - 1998

“I have done with society entirely, for reasons which I alone have the right of appreciating. I do not, therefore, obey its laws, and I desire you never to allude to them before me again!” Jules Verne, “Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea” - 1870

“Worse than all, you are candid, and it often happens that our happiness depends on certain social hypocrisies to which you will never stoop.” Honoré de Balzac, “Letters of Two Brides” - 1841

“All that destroys social unity is worthless; all institutions that set man in contradiction to himself are worthless.” Jean-Jacques Rousseau, “The Social Contract” - 1762

“People want nothing but mirrors around them. To reflect them while they're reflecting too.” Ayn Rand, “The Fountainhead” - 1943

“But of all the instances of error arising from this physical fancy, the worst is that we have before us: the habit of exhaustively describing a social sickness, and then propounding a social drug.” G. K. Chesterton, “What's Wrong with the World” - 1910

“Families stand at the center of our society. And every family has a personal stake in promoting excellence in education.” Ronald Reagan, “State of the Union Address” - 25 January 1984

“I want somehow to get away with you into a world where words like that—categories like that—won't exist. Where we shall be simply two human beings who love each other, who are the whole of life to each other; and nothing else on earth will...” Edith Wharton, “The Age of Innocence” - 1920

“The mindset which leaves no room for sincere concern for the environment is the same mindset which lacks concern for the inclusion of the most vulnerable members of society.” Pope Francis, “Laudato si'” - 24 May 2015

“Our conclusion, then, is that political society exists for the sake of noble actions, and not of mere companionship.” Aristotle, “Politics”

“Badger hates Society, and invitations, and dinner, and all that sort of thing.” Kenneth Grahame, “The Wind in the Willows” - 1908

“Human life and human labour were near. I must struggle on: strive to live and bend to toil like the rest.” Charlotte Brontë, “Jane Eyre” - 16 October 1847

“For a closed society is not open to ideas of progress—and a police state finds that it cannot command the grain to grow.” John F. Kennedy, “State of the Union Address” - 14 January 1963

“he that filches from me my good name Robs me of that which not enriches him And makes me poor indeed.” William Shakespeare, “Othello” - 1623

“I'm now quite cured of seeking pleasure in society, be it country or town. A sensible man ought to find sufficient company in himself.” Emily Brontë, “Wuthering Heights” - 1847

“In a society run by terror, no statements whatsoever can be taken seriously. They are all forced, and it is the duty of every honest man to ignore them.” Milan Kundera, “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” - 1984

“We have had to agree on a certain set of rules, called etiquette and politeness, to make this frequent meeting tolerable and that we need not come to open war.” Henry David Thoreau, “Walden” - 1854

“The fear of appearances is the first symptom of impotence.” Fyodor Dostoyevsky, “Crime and Punishment” - 1867

“Ah! by Jove! one’s duty is to feel what is great, cherish the beautiful, and not accept all the conventions of society with the ignominy that it imposes upon us.” Gustave Flaubert, “Madame Bovary” - 1856

“It is a good lesson—though it may often be a hard one—for a man who has dreamed of literary fame, and of making for himself a rank among the world's dignitaries by such means, to step aside out of the narrow circle in which his claims are...” Nathaniel Hawthorne, “The Scarlet Letter” - 1850

“Never speak disrespectfully of Society, Algernon. Only people who can't get into it do that.” Oscar Wilde, “The Importance of Being Earnest” - 1895

“Insanity in individuals is something rare—but in groups, parties, nations, and epochs it is the rule.” Friedrich Nietzsche, “Beyond Good and Evil” - 1886

“when a young lady is to be a heroine, the perverseness of forty surrounding families cannot prevent her. Something must and will happen to throw a hero in her way.” Jane Austen, “Northanger Abbey” - 1817

“Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one” Thomas Paine, “Common Sense” - 1776

“Men have no more time to understand anything. They buy things all ready made at the shops. But there is no shop anywhere where one can buy friendship, and so men have no friends any more.” Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, “The Little Prince” - 1943

“Every individual is continually exerting himself to find out the most advantageous employment for whatever capital he can command. It is his own advantage, indeed, and not that of the society, which he has in view. But the study of his own...” Adam Smith, “The Wealth of Nations” - 1776

“Don't you think it would be wonderful to get rid of everything and everybody and just go somewhere where you don't know a soul?” Haruki Murakami, “Norwegian Wood” - 1987

“It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.” Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Self-Reliance” - 1841

“With the destruction of our social fabric, science will be broken into a million pieces. Individuals will know much of exceedingly tiny facets of what there is to know.” Isaac Asimov, “Foundation” - 1951

Related topics

freedom individuality escape environment friendship happiness value loneliness morality mirror education progress solitude love madness men women life fear knowledge

Related authors

Pope Francis (3)
William Shakespeare (2)
Jane Austen (2)
Oscar Wilde (2)
Henry David Thoreau (2)
Ralph Waldo Emerson (2)
Aldous Huxley (2)
Ayn Rand (2)
Adam Smith (2)
Honoré de Balzac (2)
Karl Marx (2)
Thomas Paine (2)
Jean-Paul Sartre (2)
John F. Kennedy (2)
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1)
Mark Twain (1)
Charlotte Brontë (1)
Herman Melville (1)
G. K. Chesterton (1)
C. S. Lewis (1)

Related sources

Laudato si' (3)
State of the Union Address (2)
Self-Reliance (2)
Brave New World (2)
The Fountainhead (2)
The Wealth of Nations (2)
Letters of Two Brides (2)
Das Kapital (2)
Common Sense (2)
Nausea (2)
Walden (2)
Othello (1)
Northanger Abbey (1)
Pride and Prejudice (1)
An Ideal Husband (1)
The Importance of Being Earnest (1)
Cymbeline (1)
Jane Eyre (1)
Moby-Dick (1)
What's Wrong with the World (1)