Society Quotes - Page 38

• The anointed don't like to talk about painful trade-offs. They like to talk about happy "solutionsthat get rid of the whole problem- at least in their imagination.

  Thomas Sowell

  Imagination, Problem, Painful

  Thomas Sowell (1993). “Is Reality Optional?: And Other Essays”, Hoover Inst Press

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• Much of what sophisticates loftily refer to as the "complexityof the real world is in fact the inconsistency in their own minds.

  Thomas Sowell

  Real, Mind, World

  Thomas Sowell (1993). “Is Reality Optional?: And Other Essays”, Hoover Inst Press

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• The demands of unbounded individualism need to be weighed in the light of inherent social constraints which can only change their form but cannot be eliminated without eliminating civilization.

  Thomas Sowell

  Light, Civilization, Needs

  Thomas Sowell (1996). “Knowledge And Decisions”, p.107, Basic Books

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• Civilized ages inherit the human nature which was victorious in barbarous ages, and that nature is, in many respects, not at all suited to civilized circumstances.

  Walter Bagehot

  Age, Human Nature, Circumstances

  Walter Bagehot (1873). “Physics and Politics: Or, Thoughts on the Application of the Principles of "natural Selection" and "inheritance" to Political Society”, p.185

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• You can shoot the tiger, or stay out of his way, but you cannot pronounce him a vegetarian.

  Richard Mitchell

  Way, Vegetarian, Tigers

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• When we find ourselves wondering about the meaning of conditions and events, its always useful to ask, who profits?

  Richard Mitchell

  Events, Wonder, Profit

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• You cannot criticize the New Testament. It criticizes you.

  John Jay Chapman

  New Testament, Criticize, Testament

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• There are plenty of people to whom the crucial problem of their lives never get presented in terms that they can understand.

  John Jay Chapman

  People, Problem, Term

  John Jay Chapman (1974). “William Lloyd Garrison”, Beekman Books Incorporated

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• The biggest mischief in the past century has been perpetrated by Rousseau with his doctrine of the goodness of human nature. The mob and the intellectuals derived from it the vision of a Golden Age which would arrive without fail once the noble human race could act according to its whims.

  Jacob Burckhardt

  Past, Race, Vision

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• History is on every occasion the record of that which one age finds worthy of note in another.

  Jacob Burckhardt

  Age, Records, Notes

  Jacob Burckhardt (1964). “Force and Freedom: Reflections on History”, New York : Pantheon Books

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• The presence of a body of well-instructed men, who have not to labor for their daily bread, is important to a degree which cannot be overestimated; as all high intellectual work is carried on by them, and on such work material progress of all kinds mainly depends, not to mention other and higher advantages.

  Charles Darwin

  Men, Intellectual, Progress

  Charles Darwin (1871). “The Descent of man”, p.163

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• It is easier to show the disorder that must accompany reform than the order that should follow it.

  Frederic Bastiat

  Order, Reform, Easier

  "Economic Sophisms". Book by Frederic Bastiat (translated), 1845.

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• Whatever begins to be tranquil is gobbled up by something not tranquil.

  William Randolph Hearst

  Tranquil

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

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• There is in the universe something for the description and analysis of which the natural sciences cannot contribute anything. There are events beyond the range of those events that the procedures of the natural sciences are fit to observe and describe. There is human action.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Events, Analysis, Action

  Ludwig Von Mises (1962). “The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science: An Essay on Method”

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• 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

  Ego, Individual, Strengthening

  Ludwig von Mises (2016). “Socialism - An Economic and Sociological Analysis: The Economist”, p.39, VM eBooks

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• The methods of the natural sciences cannot be applied to human behavior because this behaviorlacks the peculiarity that characterizes events in the field of the natural sciences, viz., regularity.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Fields, Events, Behavior

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• Scientific research sooner or later, but inevitably, encounters something ultimately given that it cannot trace back to something else of which it would appear as the regular or necessary derivative. Scientific progress consists in pushing further back this ultimately given.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Progress, Encounters, Research

  Ludwig Von Mises (1962). “The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science: An Essay on Method”

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• The avowed aim of all utopian movements is to put an end to history and to establish a final and permanent calm.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Finals, Movement, Calm

  Ludwig Von Mises (1978). “Anti-Capitalistic Mentality, The”, p.106, Ludwig von Mises Institute

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• Positive self-esteem operates as, in effect, the immune system of the consciousness, providing resistance, strength, and a capacity for regeneration. When self-esteem is low, our resilience in the face of life's adversities is diminished. We crumble before vicissitudes that a healthier sense of self could vanquish. We tend to be more influenced by the desire to avoid pain than to experience joy. Negatives have more power over us than positives.

  Nathaniel Branden

  Pain, Self Esteem, Adversity

  Nathaniel Branden (1992). “Power of Self Esteem”

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• Deeds of violence in our society are performed largely by those trying to establish their self-esteem, to defend their self-image, and to demonstrate that they, too, are significant.

  Rollo May

  Self Esteem, Trying, Deeds

  Rollo May (1998). “Power and Innocence: A Search for the Sources of Violence”, p.23, W. W. Norton & Company

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• Society, dead or alive, can have no charm without intimacy and no intimacy without an interest in trifles.

  Arthur Balfour

  Alive, Intimacy, Charm

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• The only meaning of life worth caring about is one that can withstand our best efforts to examine it.

  Daniel Dennett

  Caring, Best Effort, Meaning Of Life

  Daniel C. Dennett (2014). “Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meaning of Life”, p.22, Simon and Schuster

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• Every change in conditions will make necessary some change in the use of resources, in the direction and kind of human activities, in habits and practices. And each change in the actions of those affected in the first instance will require further adjustments that will gradually extend through the whole of society. Every change thus in a sense creates a "problemfor society, even though no single individual perceives it as such; it is gradually "solvedby the establishment of a new overall adjustment.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Practice, Use, Firsts

  "The Constitution of Liberty". Book by Friedrich Hayek, Part I. The Value of Freedom, Chap. 2 : The Creative Power of a Free Civilization, 1960.

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• Humiliating to human pride as it may be, we must recognize that the advance and even the preservation of civilization are dependent upon a maximum of opportunity for accidents to happen.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Pride, Opportunity, Civilization

  "The Constitution of Liberty". Book by Friedrich Hayek, 1960.

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• Whenever the government of the United States shall break up, it will probably be in consequence of a false direction having been given to publick opinion. This is the weak point of our defenses, and the part to which the enemies of the system will direct all their attacks. Opinion can be so perverted as to cause the false to seem the true; the enemy, a friend, and the friend, an enemy; the best interests of the nation to appear insignificant, and trifles of moment; in a word, the right the wrong, and the wrong the right.

  James F. Cooper

  Government, Enemy, United States

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