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Civilized Society Quotes

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Civilized Society Quotes

“There is as yet no civilized society, but only a society in the process of becoming civilized. There is as yet no civilized nation, but only nations in the process of becoming civilized. From this standpoint, we can now speak of a collective task of humankind. The task of humanity is to build a genuine civilization.”

HumanitySpeakNationsProcessGrowthBecomingCivilizationTasksGenuineCollectivesCivilizedHumankindStandpointCivilized SocietyCivilized Nations
Author:Felix Adler
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“These are the now-endangered markers of a civilized society: legally ordained minimum wages, child labor laws, workers safety and compensation laws, pure foods and safe drugs, Social Security, Medicare and rules that promote competitive markets over monopolies and cartels.”

ChildrenLawSocialSecurityDrugPureSafeLaborSafetyWorkersCivilizedMinimumWagesSocial SecurityMonopolyCompensationMedicareMinimum WageCivilized SocietyMarkersChild LaborCartelsLabor Laws
Author:Bill Moyers
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“There is scarcely room for doubt that something in the psychological relation of a mother-in-law to a son-in-law breeds hostility between them and makes it hard for them to live together. But the fact that in civilized societies mothers-in-law are such a favourite subject for jokes seems to me to suggest that the emotional relation involved includes sharply contrasted components. I believe, that is, that this relation is in fact an 'ambivalent' one, composed of conflicting affectionate and hostile impulses.”

BelieveHardFactsSeemsTogetherLawMotherI BelieveRoomsDoubtSubjectsEmotionalSonInvolvedJokesRelationPsychologicalImpulseCivilizedFavouriteHostileComponentsHostilityIn-lawsAffectionateCivilized SocietyMother In LawAmbivalentSon-in-law
Book:Totem and Taboo
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“We will not make inroads into the gun-violence problem until we acknowledge the underlying causes of youth behavior today, compared to yesterday. ... we must come to the realization that laws and regulations alone cannot produce a civilized society. It's morality that is society's first line of defense against uncivilized behavior.”

FirstsProblemTodayLawCausesLinesViolenceYouthProduceMoralityBehaviorGunDefenseYesterdayRealizationAcknowledgeCivilizedRegulationGun ViolenceCivilized SocietyUncivilized
Author:Walter E. Williams
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“That country [Carthage] was rapidly sinking into the state of barbarism from whence it had been raised by the Phoenician colonies and Roman laws; and every step of intestine discord was marked by some deplorable victory of savage man over civilized society.”

MenCountryStatesLawStepsVictoryRaisedCivilizedSavagesEvery StepSinkingColonyBarbarismDiscordCivilized SocietyIntestinesCarthagePhoenicians
Book:THE HISTORY OF THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE (All 6 Volumes): From the Height of the Roman Empire, the Age of Trajan and the Antonines - to the Fall of Byzantium; Including a Review of the Crusades, and the State of Rome during the Middle Ages
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“The savage nations of the globe are the common enemies of civilized society; and we may inquire, with anxious curiosity, whether Europe is still threatened with a repetition of those calamities, which formerly oppressed the arms and institutions of Rome.”

MayStillsNationsCommonEnemyArmsEuropeInstitutionsCuriosityCivilizedRomeAnxiousGlobesSavagesOppressedThreatenedRepetitionCalamityCivilized SocietyCommon Enemy
Book:The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
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“The United States has more people living in poverty than at almost any time in the modern history of our country. I believe that in a democratic, civilized society none of our people should be hungry or living in desperation. We need to expand Social Security, not cut it. We need to increase funding for nutrition programs, not cut them.”

PeopleNeedsShouldBelieveCountryStatesI BelieveSocialUnitedPovertyUnited StatesCuttingModernSecurityProgramIncreaseDemocraticHungryOur CountryCivilizedNutritionDesperationSocial SecurityFundingCivilized SocietyModern History
Author:Bernie Sanders
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“[Walt] Whitman and [humanist educator John] Dewey tried to substitute hope for knowledge. They wanted to put shared utopian dreams - dreams of an ideally decent and civilized society - in the place of knowledge of God's Will, Moral Law, the Laws of History, or the Facts of Science.... As long as we have a functioning political left, we still have a chance to achieve our country, to make it the country of Whitman's and Dewey's dreams.”

LongStillsCountryFactsDreamWantedLawPoliticalLeftChanceMoralAchieveGods WillOur CountryDecentCivilizedSubstitutesHumanistEducatorUtopianWaltKnowledge Of GodCivilized SocietyMoral Law
Author:Richard Rorty
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“The man who lives in a small community lives in a much larger world. He knows much more of the fierce variety and uncompromising divergences of men…In a large community, we can choose our companions. In a small community, our companions are chosen for us. Thus in all extensive and highly civilized society groups come into existence founded upon sympathy, and shut out the real world more sharply than the gates of a monastery. There is nothing really narrow about the clan; the thing which is really narrow is the clique.”

KnowsMenWorldRealCommunityExistenceGroupsChosenVarietyGatesCompanionCivilizedReal WorldFierceClansCivilized SocietyMonasteriesCliqueUncompromisingDivergenceSmall Communities
Author:Gilbert K. Chesterton
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“I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and Constitutions. But laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.”

MenMindHumansWellsMadeStillsHandsMightLawPeaceChangeOpinionBoysProgressCircumstancesDiscoveryConstitutionInstitutionsMannersEnlightenedCivilizedHuman MindPaceAncestorCitizenshipCoatsIn-lawsHand In HandCivilized SocietyNew DiscoveriesUs ConstitutionFounding Fathers DemocracyAmending The ConstitutionEnlightened Society
Book:Thomas Jefferson, His Words and Vision
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“The necessary consequence of man's right to life is his right to self-defense. In a civilized society, force may be used only in retaliation and only against those who initiate its use. All the reasons which make the initiation of physical force an evil, make the retaliatory use of physical force a moral imperative. If some "pacifist" society renounced the retaliatory use of force, it would be left helplessly at the mercy of the first thug who decided to be immoral. Such a society would achieve the opposite of its intention: instead of abolishing evil, it would encourage and reward it.”

IfsMenFirstsMaySelfReasonUseWould BeLife IsUsedEvilLeftForceMoralAchieveConsequenceDecidedMercyOppositesIntentionRewardsDefenseCivilizedImmoralImperativesSelf DefenseThugPacifistInitiateInitiationCivilized SocietyRight To LifeRetaliationUse Of ForcePhysical Force
Author:Ayn Rand
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“Society, civilized society at least, is never very ready to believe anything to the detriment of those who are both rich and fascinating. It feels instinctively that manners are of more importance than morals, and, in its opinion, the highest respectability is of much less value than the possession of a good chef.”

FeelsBelieveValuesMoralOpinionRichReadyHighestImportancePossessionMannersFascinatingCivilizedChefRespectabilityCivilized Society
Book:The Picture of Dorian Gray and Three Stories
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“Civilization enables us constantly to profit from knowledge which we individually do not possess and because each individual's use of his particular knowledge may serve to assist others unknown to him in achieving their ends that men as members of civilized society can pursue their individual ends so much more successfully than they could alone.”

MenMayEndsUseIndividualKnowledgeSocietyAchieveParticularCivilizationMembersProfitPursueCivilizedCivilized Society
Author:Friedrich August von Hayek
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“We create institutions and policies on the basis of the way we make assumptions about us and others. We accept the fact that we will always have poor people around us. So we have had poor people around us. If we had believed that poverty is unacceptable to us, and that it should not belong to a civilized society, we would have created appropriate institutions and policies to create a poverty-free world.”

PeopleIfsWorldWayShouldBelieveFactsPoorBusinessAcceptingPovertyPolicyBasesInstitutionsAssumptionAppropriateCivilizedPoor PeopleBeliveCivilized SocietyFree World
Author:Muhammad Yunus
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“But would we know, whether the pretended prophet had really attained a just sentiment of morals? Let us attend to his narration; and we shall soon find, that he bestows praise on such instances of treachery, inhumanity, cruelty, revenge, bigotry, as are utterly incompatible with civilized society. No steady rule of right seems there to be attended to; and every action is blamed or praised, so far only as it is beneficial or hurtful to the true believers.”

KnowsSeemsActionMoralPraiseIslamRevengeBelieverCrueltyInstanceProphetBigotryCivilizedSentimentsSteadyBeneficialHurtfulTreacheryInhumanityTrue BelieverCivilized SocietyNarration
Book:Essays and Treatises on several subjects, etc. New edition
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“The promulgation of the great doctrines of religion, the being, and attributes, and providence of one Almighty God: the responsibility to him for all our actions, founded upon moral freedom and accountability; a future state of rewards and punishments; the cultivation of all the personal, social, and benevolent virtues-these these never can be a matter of indifference in any well-ordered community. It is, indeed, difficult to conceive how any civilized society can exist without them.”

WellsMatterStatesActionSocialDifficultCommunityResponsibilityMoralVirtueRewardsPunishmentDoctrineIndifferenceAccountabilityCivilizedAttributesProvidenceAlmightyOur ActionsBenevolentCultivationAlmighty GodCivilized SocietyReward And PunishmentMoral Freedom
Book:Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States: With a Preliminary Review of the Constitutional History of the Colonies and States, Before the Adoption of the Constitution
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“She wished some help would come from outside. But in the whole world there was no help. Society was terrible because it was insane. Civilized society is insane. Money and so-called love are its two great manias; money a long way first. The individual asserts himself in his disconnected insanity in these two modes: money and love.”

WorldWayFirstsLongTwoWholeHelpingIndividualTerribleDepressionAnd LoveIllnessWhole WorldMental IllnessInsaneInsanityGreat MenCivilizedLong WayDisconnectedManiaCivilized SocietyLove And Money
Book:Delphi Complete Works of D.H. Lawrence (Illustrated)
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“Policemen and laws can never replace customs, traditions and moral values as a means for regulating human behavior. At best, the police and criminal justice system are the last desperate line of defense for a civilized society. Our increased reliance on laws to regulate behavior is a measure of how uncivilized we’ve become.”

HumansMeanLastsLawValuesLinesJusticeMoralBehaviorTraditionPoliceDefenseCriminalsDesperateCivilizedCustomsHuman BehaviorReliancePolicemenJustice SystemCriminal JusticeMoral ValuesCivilized SocietyCriminal Justice SystemUncivilized
Author:D. Todd Christofferson
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