There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.
—Nelson Mandela (1918–2013) South African Political leader
There is a sort of economy in Providence that one shall excel where another is defective, in order to make them more useful to each other, and mix them in society.
—Joseph Addison (1672–1719) English Essayist, Poet, Playwright, Politician
Society in shipwreck is comfort to all.
—Publilius Syrus (fl.85–43 BCE) Syrian-born Roman Latin Writer
The society which scorns excellence in plumbing because plumbing is a humble activity, and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because philosophy is an exalted activity, will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy. Neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water.
—John W. Gardner (1912–2002) American Activist
The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings. The inherent virtue of Socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.
—Winston Churchill (1874–1965) British Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Journalist, Author
Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.
—Confucius (551–479 BCE) Chinese Philosopher
Without good company all dainties lose their true relish, and like painted grapes, are only seen, not tasted.
—Philip Massinger (1583–1640) English Playwright
A good marriage is like a casserole, only those responsible for it really know what goes in it.
—Unknown
Any relations in a social order will endure, if there is infused into them some of that spirit of human sympathy which qualifies life for immortality.
—George William Russell (1867–1935) Irish Author, Poet, Editor, Critic, Painter
Men would not live long in society, were they not the mutual dupes of each other.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80) French Writer
In Nevada, for a time, the lawyer, the editor, the banker, the chief desperado, the chief gambler, and the saloon-keeper occupied the same level of society, and it was the highest.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
It is quite possible to work without results, but never will there be results without work.
—Unknown
Education is an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
Society is indeed a contract. It is a partnership in all science; a partnership in all art; a partnership in every virtue, and in all perfection. As the ends of such a partnership cannot be obtained in many generations, it becomes a partnership not only between those who are living, but between those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are to be born.
—Edmund Burke (1729–97) British Philosopher, Statesman
Other people are quite dreadful. The only possible society is oneself.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
Liberty is the right to choose. Freedom is the result of the right choice.
—Anonymous
Education has opened many, many doors. However, there are still innumerable doors shut tight—unopened yet. These are the doors of the future. Perhaps one of my children will open one of these doors—I shall help give him the key.
—Unknown
We are not only gregarious animals, liking to be in sight of our fellows, but we have an innate propensity to get ourselves noticed, and noticed favorably, by our kind.
—William James (1842–1910) American Philosopher, Psychologist, Physician
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 (1950–2018) American Political Columnist
Marrying is easy, it’s housework that’s hard.
—Common Proverb
Social problems can no longer be solved by class warfare any more than international problems can be solved by wars between nations. Warfare is negative and will sooner or later lead to destruction, while good will and cooperation are positive and supply the only safe basis for building a better future.
—Fridtjof Nansen (1861–1930) Norwegian Explorer, Biologist, Oceanographer
All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother. I remember my mother’s prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
Society is a masked ball, where every one hides his real character, and reveals it by hiding.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Any society that takes away from those most capable and gives to the least will perish.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
It is always possible to bind together a considerable number of people in love, so long as there are other people left over to receive the manifestations of their aggression.
—Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) Austrian Psychiatrist, Psychoanalytic
The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
Nor was civil society founded merely to preserve the lives of its members; but that they might live well: for otherwise a state might be composed of slaves, or the animal creation… nor is it an alliance mutually to defend each other from injuries, or for a commercial intercourse. But whosoever endeavors to establish wholesome laws in a state, attends to the virtues and vices of each individual who composes it; from whence it is evident, that the first care of him who would found a city, truly deserving that name, and not nominally so, must be to have his citizens virtuous.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
To train and educate the rising generation will at all times be the first object of society, to which every other will be subordinate.
—Robert Owen (1771–1858) British Social Reformer, Philosopher
We are more sociable, and get on better with people by the heart than the intellect.
—Jean de La Bruyere (1645–96) French Satiric Moralist, Author
If everybody is rewarded just for being alive, you get the same sort of effect as you do when you reward every student just for being enrolled. You destroy not only education, you destroy society by giving A’s to everyone. This is a philosophical consideration that bothers me very much as I sit in the United States Senate and see the great budget allocations going through.
—S. I. Hayakawa (1906–92) Canadian-born American Academic, Elected Rep, Politician
Society is always trying in some way to grind us down to a single flat surface.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–94) American Physician, Essayist
A college education never hurt anybody who was willing to learn after he got it.
—Unknown
The Great Society is a place where every child can find knowledge to enrich his mind and to enlarge his talents…. It is a place where the city of man serves not only the needs of the body and the demands of commerce but the desire for beauty and the hunger for community…. It is a place where men are more concerned with the quality of their goals than the quantity of their goods.
—Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–73) American Head of State, Political leader
Whenever you take a step forward, you are bound to disturb something. You disturb the air as you go forward, you disturb the dust, the ground. You trample upon things. When a whole society moves forward, this trampling is on a much bigger scale; and each thing that you disturb, each vested interest which you want to remove, stands as an obstacle.
—Indira Gandhi (1917–84) Indian Head of State
Sobriety, severity, and self-respect are the foundations of all true sociality.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
Wherever a man goes, men will pursue him and paw him with their dirty institutions, and, if they can, constrain him to belong to their desperate odd-fellow society.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
We can imagine a society in which no one could survive as a social being because it does not correspond to biologically determined perceptions and human social needs. For historical reasons, existing societies might have such properties, leading to various forms of pathology.
—Noam Chomsky (b.1928) American Linguist, Social Critic
Society tames the wolf into a dog. And man is the most domesticated animal of all.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
The fact is popular art dates. It grows quaint. How many people feel strongly about Gilbert and Sullivan today compared to those who felt strongly in 1890?
—Stephen Sondheim (b.1930) American Musician, Composer, Songwriter
Society is like a lawn, where every roughness is smoothed, every bramble eradicated, and where the eye is delighted by the smiling verdure of a velvet surface. He, however, who would study nature in its wildness and variety, must plunge into the forest, must explore the glen, must stem the torrent, and dare the precipice.
—Washington Irving (1783–1859) American Essayist, Biographer, Historian
The change from the individual life of the animal to the group life of civilized man, which becomes a life of ever-expanding complexity as our scientific civilization advances, would obviously be impossible unless the individual learned in ever-increasing measure to subordinate his impulses and interests to the furtherance of the group life.
—Robert Andrews Millikan (1868–1953) American Physicist
Society is always taken by surprise at any new example of common sense.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
The instinct of nearly all societies is to lock up anybody who is truly free. First, society begins by trying to beat you up. If this fails, they try to poison you. If this fails too, the finish by loading honors on your head.
—Jean Cocteau (1889–1963) French Poet, Playwright, Film Director
The only worthwhile achievements of man are those which are socially useful.
—Alfred Adler (1870–1937) Austrian Psychiatrist
Society is only possible on these terms, that the individual finds therein a strengthening of his own ego and his own will.
—Ludwig von Mises (1881–1973) Austrian Economist, Philosopher, Author
Man, in society, is like a flower blown in its native bud. It is there only that his faculties, expanded in full bloom, shine out, there only reach their proper use.
—William Cowper (1731–1800) English Anglican Poet, Hymn writer
One set of messages of the society we live in is: Consume. Grow. Do what you want. Amuse yourselves. The very working of this economic system, which has bestowed these unprecedented liberties, most cherished in the form of physical mobility and material prosperity, depends on encouraging people to defy limits.
—Susan Sontag (1933–2004) American Writer, Philosopher
Institutions—government, churches, industries, and the like—have properly no other function than to contribute to human freedom; and in so far as they fail, on the whole, to perform this function, they are wrong and need reconstruction.
—Charles Cooley (1864–1929) American Sociologist
You can tell all you need to about a society from how it treats animals and beaches.
—Frank Deford (1938–2017) American Sportswriter
Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.
—James Baldwin (1924–87) American Novelist, Social Critic