Society And Culture Quotes

• If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him.

  John F. Kennedy

  Art, Umpires, Roots

  Speech at Amherst College, Amherst, Massachusetts, October 26, 1963.

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• Without culture, and the relative freedom it implies, society, even when perfect, is but a jungle. This is why any authentic creation is a gift to the future.

  Albert Camus

  Future, Perfect, Art And Culture

  Albert Camus (2012). “The Myth of Sisyphus: And Other Essays”, p.212, Vintage

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• A first grader should understand that her or his culture isn't a rational invention; that there are thousands of other cultures and they all work pretty well; that all cultures function on faith rather than truth; that there are lots of alternatives to our own society...Cultural relativity is defensible, attractive. It's a source of hope. It means we don't have to continue this way if we don't like it.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Faith, Mean, Other Cultures

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• This world of ours is a new world, in which the unit of knowledge, the nature of human communities, the order of society, the order of ideas, the very notions of society and culture have changed, and will not return to what they have been in the past. What is new is new, not because it has never been there before, but because it has changed in quality.

  J. Robert Oppenheimer

  Past, Order, Ideas

  J. Robert Oppenheimer (2013). “Uncommon Sense”, p.84, Springer Science & Business Media

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• The man who is seeking truth is free of all societies and cultures.

  Jiddu Krishnamurti

  Truth, Men, Culture

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• I think the oddest thing about the advanced people is that, while they are always talking about things as problems, they have hardly any notion of what a real problem is.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Real, Thinking, Talking

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• The modern city is ugly not because it is a city but because it is not enough of a city, because it is a jungle, because it is confused and anarchic, and surging with selfish and materialistic energies.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Selfish, Confused, Cities

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• Thus, if a composer wants to produce music that is relevant to his contemporaries, his chief problem is not really musical, though it may seem to him to be so; it is a problem of attitude to contemporary society and culture in relation to the basic human problem of learning to be human.

  John Blacking

  Music, Attitude, Culture

  John Blacking (1974). “How Musical is Man?”, p.104, University of Washington Press

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• Over-civilization and barbarism are within an inch of each other. And a mark of both is the power of medicine-men.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Men, Civilization, Medicine

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• By experts in poverty I do not mean sociologists, but poor men.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Mean, Men, Poverty

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• There have been household gods and household saints and household fairies. I am not sure that there have yet been any factory gods or factory saints or factory fairies. I may be wrong, as I am no commericial expert, but I have not heard of them as yet.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Saint, Culture, May

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• I thought about how easily we are all brainwashed by our society and culture to stop thinking and just assume by default that more money equals more success and more happiness, when ultimately happiness is really just about enjoying life.

  Tony Hsieh

  Thinking, Enjoy Life, Culture

  "Walking Away From the Money at Microsoft" by Tony Hsieh, www.huffingtonpost.com. December 13, 2010.

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• I’ve come to the point of view that for European-American society and culture to persist requires a European-American majority, and a clear one at that.

  John Tanton

  Views, Majority, Culture

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• Self-denial is the test and definition of self-government.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Self, Government, Culture

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• Certainly here in the U.S., we've had fundamentalist movements that have taken very critical and hostile attitudes toward immigration and the assimilation of immigrants into our society and culture. So these tendencies are fairly universal. The problem is what if they get out of hand and become the dominant factor in a society, which can only lead to the oppression of minorities or even to war with neighboring societies with differing cultures. That's why it seems to me it's important to try to keep these tendencies toward extremism under control.

  Samuel P. Huntington

  Attitude, War, Taken

  Interview with Amina Chaudary, www.theislamicmonthly.com. 2006.

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• Nowledge which... transcends the bounds, the prejudices and prejudgements of any one society and culture is not an illusion but, on the contrary, a glorious and luminous reality. Just how it was achieved remains subject to debate.

  Ernest Gellner

  Reality, Prejudice, Culture

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• People's wardrobes in history are something that society and culture imposed. But sexuality is not about the way you dress.

  Riccardo Tisci

  People, Culture, Way

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• Here we must distinguish between society and culture. A society can be interested in a man or woman only as a political or economic entity; a culture is interested in more. Culture means literally "to cultivate" or "to care for." Cultures care for their peoples as natural, spiritual beings and not simply as workers or consumers.

  Laurence Boldt

  Spiritual, Mean, Men

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• For me, it's just a normal artistic endeavour to explore the dark side. Certainly, I'm not alone in it. Artists generally don't like to accept the version of reality that society and culture hand them. They want to know what's really going on. So you're always looking in the ceilings, under the floorboards and behind the walls, trying to find the mechanisms, the structures, and the truth. I find that often leads you into some dark places.

  David Cronenberg

  Wall, Dark, Artist

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• I don't think that the big crunch should be seen as a menace, but rather as an opportunity. It's one of these times in -history - and we have plenty of examples from the past - where it's possible to really make a difference. And if art is serious about claiming a central role in today's society and culture, this is the best chance it's had in ages.

  Maurizio Cattelan

  Art, Past, Opportunity

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• I never could see anything wrong in sensationalism; and I am sure our society is suffering more from secrecy than from flamboyant revelations.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Suffering, Our Society, Culture

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• Abolitionism did not find positive response in Africa as it did in Western societies and cultures.

  Ibn Warraq

  Culture, Response, Western

  Source: www.ruthfullyyours.com

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• It is true that I am of an older fashion; much that I love has been destroyed or sent into exile.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Fashion, Culture, Exile

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• Happiness is our natural state. Happiness is the natural state of little children, to whom the kingdom belongs until they have been polluted and contaminated by the stupidity of society and
  culture.

  Anthony de Mello

  Children, Stupidity, Culture

  Anthony De Mello (2011). “Awareness: Conversations with the Masters”, p.78, Image

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• For the artist, the goal of the painting or musical composition is not to convey literal truth, but an aspect of a universal truth that if successful, will continue to move and to touch people even as contexts, societies and cultures change. For the scientist, the goal of a theory is to convey "truth for now"--to replace an old truth, while accepting that someday this theory, too, will be replaced by a new "truth," because that is the way science advances.

  Daniel Levitin

  Moving, Successful, Artist

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