If a man empties his purse into his head, no one can take it away from him.—An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
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
A civilized society that can no longer feel outrage, can no longer be civilized.
—Unknown
Education is not received. It is achieved.
—Indian Proverb
We have two American flags always: one for the rich and one for the poor. When the rich fly it means that things are under control; when the poor fly it means danger, revolution, anarchy.
—Henry Miller (1891–1980) American Novelist
Whatever your sex or position, life is a battle in which you are to show your pluck, and woe be to the coward. Whether passed on a bed of sickness or a tented field, it is ever the same fair play and admits not foolish distinction. Despair and postponement are cowardice and defeat. Men were born to succeed, not to fail.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
No bees, no honey; no work, no money.
—Common Proverb
The history of any private family, however humble, could it be fully related for five or six generations, would illustrate the state and progress of society better than the most elaborate dissertation.
—Robert South (1634–1716) English Theologian, Preacher
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
Man is a social animal, formed to please and enjoy in society.
—Montesquieu (1689–1755) French Political Philosopher, Jurist
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 most important service rendered by the press and the magazines is that of educating people to approach printed matter with distrust.
—Samuel Butler
No society has been able to abolish human sadness, no political system can deliver us from the pain of living, from our fear of death, our thirst for the absolute. It is the human condition that directs the social condition, not vice versa.
—Eugene Ionesco (1909–94) Romanian-born French Dramatist
To me, we must learn to spell the word RESPECT. We must respect the rights and properties of our fellowman. And then learn to play the game of life, as well as the game of athletics, according to the rules of society. If you can take that and put it into practice in the community in which you live, then, to me you have won the greatest championship.
—Jesse Owens (1913–80) American Track-and-Field Athlete
Thunder is good, thunder is impressive; but it is lightning that does the work.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
Society tames the wolf into a dog. And man is the most domesticated animal of all.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
Any society that takes away from those most capable and gives to the least will perish.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
Every institution not only carries within it the seeds of its own dissolution, but prepares the way for its most hated rival.
—William Motter Inge (1913–73) American Playwright, Novelist
Freedom is not the right to do what we want, but what we ought. Let us have faith that right makes might and in that faith let us; to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
The whole history of civilization is strewn with creeds and institutions which were invaluable at first, and deadly afterwards.
—Walter Bagehot (1826–77) English Economist, Journalist
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
The ideal society would enable every man and woman to develop along their individual lines, and not attempt to force all into one mould, however admirable.
—J. B. S. Haldane (1892–1964) British Biologist, Geneticist
Society is a masked ball, where every one hides his real character, and reveals it by hiding.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
The good society was, like the good self, a diverse yet harmonious, growing yet unified whole, a fully participatory democracy in which the powers and capacities of the individuals that comprised it were harmonized by their cooperative activities into a community that permitted the full and free expression of individuality.
—John Dewey (1859–1952) American Philosopher, Psychologist, Educator
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
Sobriety, severity, and self-respect are the foundations of all true sociality.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
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
Society is a hospital of incurables.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Our individual lives cannot, generally, be works of art unless the social order is also.
—Charles Cooley (1864–1929) American Sociologist
I have great hopes that we shall love each other all our lives as much as if we had never married at all.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
American society is a sort of flat, fresh-water pond which absorbs silently, without reaction, anything which is thrown into it.
—Henry Adams (1838–1918) American Historian, Man of Letters
You can tell all you need to about a society from how it treats animals and beaches.
—Frank Deford (1938–2017) American Sportswriter
The cost of freedom is always high, but Americans have always paid it. And one path we shall never choose, and that is the path of surrender, or submission.
—John F. Kennedy (1917–63) American Head of State, Journalist
Education, then, beyond all other devices of human origin, is the great equalizer of the conditions of men—the balance-wheel of the social machinery.
—Horace Mann (1796–1859) American Educator, Politician, Educationalist
Hard work is simply the refuge of people who have nothing whatever to do.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
There is not so much comfort in having children as there is sorrow in parting with them.
—Common Proverb
Self-recognition is necessary to know one’s road, but, knowing the road, the price of the mistakes and perils is worth paying. The following of that road will be all the discipline one needs. Discipline does not mean being molded by outside forces, but sticking to one’s road against the forces that would deflect or bury the soul. People speak of finding one.
—Randolph Bourne (1886–1918) American Writer, Scholar
Society in shipwreck is comfort to all.
—Publilius Syrus (fl.85–43 BCE) Syrian-born Roman Latin Writer
A champion of the working man has never yet been known to die of overwork.
—Robert Frost (1874–1963) American Poet
To attain excellence in society, an assemblage of qualifications is requisite: disciplined intellect, to think clearly, and to clothe thought with propriety and elegance; knowledge of human nature, to suit subject to character; true politeness, to prevent giving pain; a deep sense of morality, to preserve the dignity of speech; and a spirit of benevolence, to neutralize its asperities, and sanctify its powers.
—Lydia H. Sigourney (1791–1865) American Poetaster, Author
The code of society is stronger with some persons than that of Sinai; and many a man who would not scruple to thrust his fingers in his neighbor’s pocket, would forego peas rather than use his knife as a shovel.
—James Russell Lowell (1819–91) American Poet, Critic
He who is unable to live in society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for himself, must be either a beast or a god.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
There is one fact that can be established. The only phenomenon which, always and in all parts of the world, seems to be linked with the appearance of writing.
—Claude Levi-Strauss (1908–2009) French Social Anthropologist, Philosopher
What are all political and social institutions, but always a religion, which in realizing itself, becomes incarnate in the world?
—Edgar Quinet (1803–75) French Historian, Poet
Society lives by faith, and develops by science.
—Henri Frederic Amiel (1821–81) Swiss Moral Philosopher, Poet, Critic
Society undergoes continual changes; it is barbarous, it is civilized, it is Christianized, it is rich, it is scientific; but this change is not amelioration. For everything that is given something is taken. Society acquires new arts, and loses old instincts. The civilized man has built a coach, but has lost the use of his feet; he has a fine Geneva watch, but cannot tell the hour by the sun.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
The best way to make children good is to make them happy.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
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
I dread success. To have succeeded is to have finished one’s business on earth, like the male spider, who is killed by the female the moment he has succeeded in his courtship. I like a state of continual becoming, with a goal in front and not behind.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
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