American Society Quotes

• The happiness of society is the end of government.

  John Adams

  Happiness, Government, Presidential

  'Thoughts on Government' (1776)

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• To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Leadership, Education, Business

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  Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

  John Adams

  Bible, God, Religious

  John Adams, Charles Francis Adams (1854). “Works: with a life of the author”, p.229

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• The most distinguished hallmark of the American society is and always has been change.

  Eric Sevareid

  Hallmark, Distinguished, Has Beens

  Eric Sevareid (1964). “This is Eric Sevareid”

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• We also have a piece about the Mayflower, but it's just a very different, very gritty, very character-driven version of why those people were on that boat and what the experience was like for them, emotionally, physically and spiritually, and also the Native Americans and what the state of Native American society was at that time.

  John Landgraf

  Character, Native American, People

  "FX CEO John Landgraf Talks FARGO Limited Series, THE STRAIN, and More; Says THE STRAIN Will End Up Running Between 39 and 65 Episodes". Interview with Christina Radish, collider.com. August 2, 2013.

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• The shift in American society from admiring Christians to fearing and criticizing them provides an opportunity for self-reflection. How have we been presenting the message we believe in? Might there be a more grace-filled way?

  Philip Yancey

  Christian, Believe, Reflection

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• I acquired more wealth, power, and prestige than most. But you can acquire all you want and still feel empty. It took a deadly illness to put me eye to eye with that truth, but it is a truth that the country, caught up in its ruthless ambitions and moral decay, can learn on my dime. I don't know who will lead us through the '90s, but they must be made to speak to this spiritual vacuum at the heart of American society, this tumor of the soul.

  Lee Atwater

  Country, Spiritual, Eye

  Life Interview, January 1991.

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• Thanks to Barack Obama, America is for the first time aligning its values with those of 'the majority of the world's population.' If you think the world's population has had better values than America, that is has made societies that are more open, free, and tolerant than American society, and that is has fought for others' liberty more than America has, you should be delighted.

  Dennis Prager

  Thinking, America, Liberty

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• A thoughtful and well-informed consideration of US government in relation to American society.

  Ian Harris

  Thoughtful, Government, Consideration

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• American society is now remarkably atomized. Political organizations have collapsed. In fact, it seems like even bowling leagues are collapsing. The left has a lot to answer for here. There's been a drift toward very fragmenting tendencies among left groups, toward this sort of identity politics.

  Noam Chomsky

  Organization, Identity Politics, League

  "What’s Left". www.motherjones.com. January/February 1996.

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• I was really worn down by an American society that is racist, smugly blind to it, and hugely self-satisfied.

  Randall Robinson

  Self, Racist, Blind

  Interview with Amitabh Pal, www.sharedhost.progressive.org. September 26, 2005.

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• American society in recent years has been imitating behavior patterns that have produced negative - and sometimes catastrophic - consequences in many other countries around the world.

  Thomas Sowell

  Country, Years, Negative

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• On all levels American society is rigged. I am troubled by the cynical immorality of my country. It cannot survive on this basis.

  John Steinbeck

  Country, Cynical, Levels

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• To summarize, draft resistance can make use of the inegalitarian nature of American society as a technique for increasing the cost of American aggression, and it threatens values that are important to those in a decision-making position.

  Noam Chomsky

  Decision, Important, Technique

  Institute Professor Department of Linguistics and Philosophy Noam Chomsky, Noam Chomsky (2010). “American Power and the New Mandarins”, p.493, ReadHowYouWant.com

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• Interesting thing that is happening in American society is that people are starting to talk about money. I don't know how you feel about this, but for a long time, nobody was talking about money. It was a secret. And it's kind of very interesting because we do lots of stuff to portray to people about how much money we have, the clothes we wear and the cars we have and the house - they all kind of depict to other people, signal how much money we make, but we don't talk about it specifically.

  Dan Ariely

  Talking, Clothes, Long

  The Big Think Interview, bigthink.com. November 18, 2009.

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• It is not wrong or bigoted to believe American society is stronger and that the family unit is better served when marriage is between a man and a woman. It is also not wrong for homosexual Americans to want to get as much parity as they can.

  Bill O'Reilly

  Believe, Gay, Men

  "Bill O'Reilly: A big victory for traditional forces". www.foxnews.com. August 2, 2012.

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• Unlike mainstream civil rights groups, which merely sought integration of blacks into the existing order, SNCC sought structural changes in American society itself.

  Julian Bond

  Rights, Order, Groups

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• Possibly drastic and Spartan methods may be forced upon American society if it continues complacently to encourage the chance and chaotic breeding that has resulted from our stupid, cruel sentimentalism.

  Margaret Sanger

  Stupid, May, Chance

  Margaret Sanger, H. G. Wells (2016). “The Pivot of Civilization”, p.21, Read Books Ltd

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• I believe we should work to end all racism in American society and staunchly defend the inherent rights of every person. I have clearly stated in prior interviews that I abhor racial discrimination and would have worked to end segregation. Even though this matter was settled when I was 2, and no serious people are seeking to revisit it except to score cheap political points, I unequivocally state that I will not support any efforts to repeal the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

  Rand Paul

  Believe, Rights, Racism

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• Traditionally in American society, men have been trained for both competition and teamwork through sports, while women have been reared to merge their welfare with that of the family, with fewer opportunities for either independence or other team identifications, and fewer challenges to direct competition. In effect, women have been circumscribed within that unit where the benefit of one is most easily believed to be the benefit of all.

  Mary Catherine Bateson

  Teamwork, Sports, Women

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• American society [...] not only sanctions gross and unfair relations among men, but it encourages them. Now, can that be denied? No. Rivalry, competition, envy, jealousy, all that is malignant in human character is nourished by the system. Possession, money, property--on such corrupt standards as these do you people measure happiness and success.

  Philip Roth

  Character, Men, People

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• The surface of American society is covered with a layer of democratic paint, but from time to time one can see the old aristocratic colours breaking through.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Political, Democracy, Aristocracy

  Alexis de Tocqueville (1990). “Democracy in America”

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• As far as hypnosis is concerned, I had a very serious problem when I was in my twenties. I encountered a man who later became the president of the American Society of Medical Hypnosis. He couldn't hypnotize me.

  Theodore Sturgeon

  Men, Hypnosis, President

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• I understand why society, especially American society, is gravitating toward fairy tales, given our economy. We've been exploring the world of witches and wizards for years. We've been exploring the world of vampires for years. Clearly the public - I mean, I feel like all of this was ushered in by 'Harry Potter' - in my own fannish beliefs.

  Ginnifer Goodwin

  Mean, Years, Exploring The World

  "Biography/Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• I regard the Klan, the Anglo-Saxon clubs and White American societies, as far as the Negro is concerned, as better friends of the race than all other groups of hypocritical whites put together.

  Marcus Garvey

  Friends, Pride, Race

  Marcus Garvey, Amy Jacques Garvey (1923). “The Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey, Or, Africa for the Africans”, The Majority Press

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