Society Quotes - Page 30

• Cherishing children is the mark of a civilized society.

  Joan Ganz Cooney

  Children, Cherish, Mark

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• Progressive societies outgrow institutions as children outgrow clothes.

  Henry George

  Children, Clothes, Progress

  Henry George (2006). “Social Problems”, p.7, Cosimo, Inc.

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• Persecution is the first law of society because it is always easier to suppress criticism than to meet it.

  Howard Mumford Jones

  Law, Criticism, Firsts

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• Society is composed of men, and every man is a FREE agent. Since man is free, he can choose; since he can choose, he can err; since he can err, he can suffer. I go further: He must err and he must suffer; for his starting point is ignorance, and in his ignorance he sees before him an infinite number of unknown roads, all of which save one lead to error.

  Frederic Bastiat

  Ignorance, Men, Numbers

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• Members of society must obey the law because they personally believe that its commands are justified.

  David L. Bazelon

  Believe, Law, Justified

  David L. Bazelon (1988). “Questioning Authority: Justice and Criminal Law”, Alfred a Knopf Incorporated

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• The more profound problem, however, is the degree to which many academic intellectuals, especially in the humanities, have lost their ability to distinguish the 'state' from 'society'.

  Stephen D. Cox

  Profound, Humanity, Degrees

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• [T]here are, at bottom, basically two ways to order social affairs, Coercively, through the mechanisms of the state - what we can call political society. And voluntarily, through the private interaction of individuals and associations - what we can call civil society. ... In a civil society, you make the decision. In a political society, someone else does. ... Civil society is based on reason, eloquence, and persuasion, which is to say voluntarism. Political society, on the other hand, is based on force.

  Ed Crane

  Two, Hands, Order

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• In the process of helping some (perhaps most) people to more utility and justice, the state imposes on civil society a system of interdictions and commands.

  Anthony de Jasay

  People, Justice, Helping

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• If you say to people that they, as a matter of fact, can't protect their conversations, in particular their political conversations, I think you take a long step toward making a transition from a free society to a totalitarian society.

  Whitfield Diffie

  Thinking, Long, People

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• The privilege against self-incrimination is one of the great landmarks in man's struggle to make himself civilized... The Fifth is a lone sure rock in time of storm ... a symbol of the ultimate moral sense of the community, upholding the best in us.

  Erwin Griswold

  Struggle, Men, Rocks

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• Let me offer you, metaphorically, two magic wands that have sweeping powers to change society. With one wand you could wipe out all racism and discrimination from the hearts and minds of white America. The other wand you could wave across the ghettoes and barrios of America and infuse the inhabitants with Japanese or Jewish values, respect for learning, and ambition. ... I suggest that the best wand for society and for those who live in the ghettoes and barrios would be the second wand.

  Richard Lamm

  Ghetto, Heart, Ambition

  "Two Wands, One Nation: An Essay on Race and Community in America". Book by Richard Lamm, 2006.

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• It is the tragic story of the cultural crusader in a mass society that he cannot win, but that we would be lost without him.

  Paul Lazarsfeld

  Winning, Would Be, Stories

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• The class of citizens who provide at once their own food and their own raiment, may be viewed as the most truly independent and happy. They are more: they are the best basis of public liberty, and the strongest bulwark of public safety. It follows, that the greater the proportion of this class to the whole society, the more free, the more independent, and the more happy must be the society itself.

  James Madison

  Independent, Class, Safety

  James Madison, David B. Mattern (1997). “James Madison's "Advice to My Country"”, p.12, University of Virginia Press

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• The contempt for law and the contempt for the human consequences of lawbreaking go from the bottom to the top of American society.

  Margaret Mead

  Law, Contempt, Bottom

  "Impeachment?". Claire Safran, Redbook, April 1974.

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• What a state of society is this in which freethinker is a term of abuse, and in which doubt is regarded as sin?

  William Winwood Reade

  Abuse, Doubt, Sin

  William Winwood Reade (1892). “The Martyrdom of Man”

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• Only when the human spirit is allowed to invent and create, only when individuals are given a personal stake in deciding economic policies and benefiting from their success - only then can societies remain economically alive, dynamic, prosperous, progressive and free.

  Ronald Reagan

  Alive, Spirit, Progressive

  Ronald Reagan (2004). “The uncommon wisdom of Ronald Reagan: a portrait in his own words”

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• Imprisonment, as it exists today, is a worse crime than any of those committed by its victims.

  George Bernard Shaw

  Today, Crime, Victim

  George Bernard Shaw (1993). “The Complete Prefaces: 1914-1929”, Viking Adult

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• Nobody can live in society without conventions. The reason why sensible people are as conventional as they can bear to be is that conventionality saves so much time and thought and trouble and social friction of one sort or another that it leaves them much more leisure time for freedom than unconventionality does.

  George Bernard Shaw

  People, Doe, Leisure

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• Nay, all laws must fall, human societies that subsist by them be dissolved, and all innocent persons be exposed to the violence of the most wicked, if men might not justly defend themselves against injustice by their own natural right, when the ways prescribed by publick authority cannot be taken.

  Algernon Sidney

  Fall, Taken, Men

  Algernon Sidney (1805). “Discourses on Government”, p.431

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• In a free society, individuals have the right to do right or wrong, as long as they don't threaten or infringe upon the rights or property of others.

  Mark Skousen

  Rights, Long, Individual

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• Although I have made a fortune in the financial markets, I now fear that the untrammeled intensification of laissez-faire capitalism and the spread of market values into all areas of life is endangering our open and democratic society. The main enemy of the open society, I believe, is no longer the communist but the capitalist threat.

  George Soros

  Believe, Enemy, Laissez Faire Capitalism

  "The Capitalist Threat". www.theatlantic.com. February 1997.

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• As against the "invisible hand" of Adam Smith, there has to be a visible hand of politicians whose objective is to have the kind of society that is caring and humane.

  Pierre Trudeau

  Caring, Hands, Invisible Hand

  Pierre Elliott Trudeau (1995). “Memoirs”, McClelland & Stewart Limited

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• Asked random questions about the First Amendment and how they would like to have it applied, if you believe in polls at all, the average American wants no part of it. But if you ask, 'What if we threw the Constitution away tomorrow?' the answer is 'No, that would be bad!' But living under the Constitution is another story altogether.

  Frank Zappa

  Believe, Average, What If

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• We must not overlook the role that extremists play. They are the gadflies that keep society from being too complacent or self-satisfied; they are, if sound, the spearhead of progress. If they are fundamentally wrong, free discussion will in time put an end to them.

  Abraham Flexner

  Science, Self, Play

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• The choice so often these days is to believe something that seems insane or go insane.

  Robert Breault

  Believe, Choices, Insane

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