Best institutions & self Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“By dismantling the narrow politics of racial identity and selective self-interest, by going beyond 'black' and 'white,' we may construct new values, new institutions and new visions of an America beyond traditional racial categories and racial oppression.”

Source: Beyond Black and White: Transforming African-American Politics

“...But I don't think I'm the only person who is tired of books and movies full of paper-doll characters you don't care about, who have no self-respect and no respect for anybody or any institution....And I don't want to sound preachy or Victorian, but I'm tired of amorality in fiction and in real life. Immorality is a fascinating human dilemma that creates suspense for the readers and tension for the characters, but where is the tension in an amoral situation? When people have no personal code, nothing is threatening and nothing is meaningful.”

“There is, indeed, a most dangerous passage in the history of a democratic people. When the taste for physical gratifications among them has grown more rapidly than their education and their experience of free institutions, the time will come when men are carried away and lose all self-restraint at the sight of new possessions they are about to obtain. In their intense and exclusive anxiety to make a fortune they lose sight of the close connection that exists between the private fortune of each and the prosperity of all.”

“If you give up on politics, you're giving up on democracy. And if you give up on democracy, you're basically saying to the moneyed interests, the powerful people and institutions of society, take it all. That's a self-fulfilling prophecy. Then we give up. Then we are 100 percent plutocracy.”

People Ifs Giving Self Interest Powerful Democracy Giving Up Percent Institutions Fulfilling Prophecy Self Fulfilling Prophecy Plutocracy

Author:Robert Reich

“Self-confidence is inseparable from submission to the creedal order, and through that order, to the supreme authority expressed in that order. ... Deep individualism cannot exist except in relation to the highest authority. No inner discipline can operate without a charismatic institution, nor can such an institution survive without that supreme authority from a relation to whom self-confidence derives. Without an authority deeply installed, there is no foundation for individuality. Self-confidence thus expresses submission to supreme authority.”

Self Order Discipline Authority Highest Relation Institutions Foundation Individuality Self Confidence Supreme Individualism Submission Inseparable Charismatic

Author:Philip Rieff

“It is a fact that unless children are brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, they, and the society which they constitute or control, will go to destruction. Consequently, when a state resolves that religious instruction shall be banished from the schools and other literary institutions, it virtually resolves on self-destruction.”

Source: Systematic Theology

“The great problem of legislation is, so to organize the civil government of a community... that in the operation of human institutions upon social action, self-love and social may be made the same.”

Humans May Made Self Problem Government Action Social Community Self Love Institutions Operations Organize Legislation Social Action

Author:John Quincy Adams

“Like Karl Kraus [Wittgenstein], was seldom pleased by what he saw of the institutions of men, and the idiom of the passerby mostly offended his ear - particularly when they happened to speak philosophically; and like Karl Kraus, he suspected that the institutions could not but be corrupt if the idiom of the race was confused, presumptuous, and vacuous, a fabric of nonsense, untruth, deception, and self-deception.”

Ifs Men Self Speak Race Saws Happened Ears Institutions Deception Confused Nonsense Fabric Offended Self Deception Untruth Idiom Presumptuous Vacuous Passerby

Author:Thomas Szasz

“So long as men denounce each other as mentally sick (homosexual, addicted, insane, and so forth) so that the madman can always be considered the Other, never the Self mental illness will remain an easily exploitable concept, and Coercive Psychiatry a flourishing institution.”

Men Long Self Concepts Sick Institutions Illness Mental Illness Insane Homosexual Psychiatry Madmen Flourishing

Book:The Manufacture of Madness: A Comparative Study of the Inquisition and the Mental Health Movement

Source: The Manufacture of Madness: A Comparative Study of the Inquisition and the Mental Health Movement

“I claim that every woman in this century and in our culture sphere who has ventured into male-dominated institutions - 'literature' and 'aesthetics' are such institutions - must have experienced the desire for self-destruction.”

Self Desire Culture Literature Century Destruction Claims Institutions Males Sexism Spheres Aesthetics Self Destruction

Author:Christa Wolf

“Human institutions depend for their existence and stability on the impulse of self-preservation and its close associate, - the fear instinct.”

Humans Self Existence Depends Institutions Instinct Impulse Stability Associates Preservation Self Preservation

Author:Boris Sidis

“Our thesis is that the idea of a self-adjusting market implied a stark utopia. Such an institution could not exist for any length of time without annihilating the human and natural substance of society; it would have physically destroyed man and transformed his surroundings into a wilderness.”

Men Humans Ideas Self Natural Institutions Destroyed Substance Wilderness Length Transformed Surroundings Utopia Starks Thesis Adjusting Implied

Book:The Great Transformation

Source: The Great Transformation

“Any woman who wishes to be an intellectual, to write non-fiction, to deal with theory, faces a lot of discrimination coming her way and perhaps even self-doubt because there aren't that many who've gone before you. And I think that the most powerful tool we can have is to be clear about our intent. To know what it is we want to do rather than going into institutions thinking that the institution is going to frame for us.”

Thinking Knows Way Want Writing Self Faces Wish Deals Powerful Fiction Gone Clear Doubt Theory Intellectual Tools Institutions Discrimination Most Powerful Non Fiction Self-doubt

Author:Bell Hooks

“Our fathers and grandfathers who poured over the Midwest were self-reliant, rugged, God-fearing people of indomitable courage...They asked only for freedom of opportunity and equal chance. In these conceptions lies the real basis of American democracy. They and their fathers give a genius to American institutions that distinguished our people from any other in the world.”

“The philanthropic tradition is older than democracy, older than Christianity, and older than higher education. It gives form and purpose to personal and social life that cannot be provided by the self-interest of economic enterprise or required by the mandate of political institutions.”

“We must protect each other against the attacks of those self-appointed watchdogs of patriotism now abroad in the land who irresponsibly pin red labels on anyone whom they wish to destroy. ... [Academic professionals are the only person competant to differentiate between honest independents and the Communists.] This is our responsibility. It is not a pleasant task. But if it is left to outsiders, the distinction is not likely to be made and those independent critics of social institutions among us who are one of the glories of a true university could be silenced.”

“[University students] hated the hypocrisy of adult society, the rigidity of its political institutions, the impersonality of its bureaucracies. They sought to create a society that places human values before materialistic ones, that has a little less head and a little more heart, that is dominated by self-interest and loves its neighbor more. And they were persuaded that group protest of a militant nature would advance those goals.”

“Parents still have primary responsibility for raising children, but they must have the power to do so in ways consistent with their children's needs and their own values.... We must address ourselves less to the criticism and reform of parents themselves than to the criticism and reform of the institutions that sap their self-esteem and power.”

Way Needs Children Stills Self Values Parent Responsibility Self Esteem Criticism Institutions Esteem Reform Primaries Addresses Consistent Raising Children Sap

Book:All Our Children: The American Family Under Pressure

Source: All Our Children: The American Family Under Pressure

“Just what is it that America stands for? If she stands for one thing more than another, it is for the sovereignty of self-governing people, and her example, her assistance, her encouragement, has thrilled two continents in this western world with all those fine impulses which have built up human liberty on sides of the water. She stands, therefore, as an example of independence, as an example of free institutions, and as an example of disinterested international action in the main tenets of justice.”

“The capitalist workplace is one of the most profoundly undemocratic institutions on the face of the Earth. Workers have no say over decisions affecting them. If workers sat on the board of directors of democratically operated self-managed enterprises, they wouldn't vote for the wildly unequal distribution of profits to benefit a few and for cutbacks for the many.”

“You cannot have democracy without the institutions. You cannot have a democracy that is built on the moods of self-interested people.”

People Self Democracy Built Institutions Mood

Author:Bashar al-Assad

“Slavery results from laws, laws are made by governments, and, therefore people can only be freed from slavery by the abolition of governments.... And it is time for people to understand that governments not only are not necessary, but are harmful and most highly immoral institutions, in which a self-respecting, honest man cannot and must not take part.”

People Men Made Self Government Law Results Honest Institutions Slavery Immoral Honest Man Abolition

Author:Leo Tolstoy

“Science is the only self-correcting human institution, but it also is a process that progresses only by showing itself to be wrong.”

Humans Self Process Progress Institutions Correcting

Author:Allan Sandage

“Quite simply, there can be no popular sovereignty without a real belief in the value of government. If government does not assume and carry out public responsibilities, less accountable institutions such as the corporation will do the job in their own self-interest.”

Ifs Doe Real Self Government Jobs Values Belief Interest Responsibility Institutions Assuming Corporations Sovereignty Self Interest Popular Sovereignty

Author:Charles Derber

“We are in the midst of a once-in-a-century credit tsunami. Central banks and governments are being required to take unprecedented measures. Those of us who have looked to the self-interest of lending institutions to protect shareholders' equity are in a state of shocked disbelief.”

Self States Government Interest Century Protect Institutions Credit Midst Shocked Equity Self Interest Disbelief Unprecedented Lending Shareholders Central Banks Tsunami

Author:Alan Greenspan

“When self-important people and powerful institutions are governed by illusion, history has a way of biting back.”

People Way Important Self Powerful Illusion Institutions Biting

Author:William Greider

“Education (the institution) has now adopted values, attitudes, and practices that make any rigorous understanding of the human self and life impossible.”

Humans Self Values Understanding Attitude Practice Impossible Institutions Adopted

Author:Dallas Willard

“The downfall of democratic institutions in Russia doesn't add to the self-confidence of either [Vladimir] Putin or his friends, as the loss of power could lead to repercussions in Russian society.”

Self Loss Institutions Add Democratic Self Confidence Russia Putin Downfall Repercussions

Author:Garry Kasparov

“My fear is that many institutions will eventually alter how they treat people who refuse to self-track. There are all sorts of political and moral implications here, and I'm not sure that we have grappled with any of them.”

People Self Political Moral Treats Institutions Track Refuse Not Sure Implications

Author:Evgeny Morozov

“What, unless biological science is a mass of errors, is the cause of human intelligence and vigour? Hardship and freedom: conditions under which the active, strong, and subtle survive and the weaker go to the wall; conditions that put a premium upon the loyal alliance of capable men, upon self-restraint, patience, and decision. And the institution of the family, and the emotions that arise therein, the fierce jealousy, the tenderness for offspring, parental self-devotion, all found their justification and support in the imminent dangers of the young.”

“The "non-profit" institution neither supplies goods or services not controls. Its "product" is neither a pair of shoes nor an effective regulation. Its product is a changed human being. The non-profit institutions are human-change agents. Their "product" is a cured patient, a child that learns, a young man or woman grown into a self-respecting adult; a changed human life altogether.”

Source: Managing the Non-Profit Organization

“The function of a leader within any institution: to provide that regulation through his or her non-anxious, self-defined presence.”

Self Leadership Leader Inspire Function Institutions Defined Anxious Regulation

Book:A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix

Source: A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix

“...I am opposed to all attempts to license or restrict the arming of individuals... I consider such laws a violation of civil liberty, subversive of democratic political institutions, and self-defeating in their purpose.”

Self Law Political Purpose Individual Liberty Gun Institutions Democratic Gun Control License Violation Civil Liberties Subversive Political Institutions

Author:Robert A. Heinlein

“They tell us that we live in a great free republic; that our institutions are democratic; that we are a free and self-governing people. That is too much, even for a joke. ... Wars throughout history have been waged for conquest and plunder... And that is war in a nutshell. The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.”

People Has Beens War Self Freedom Liberty Class Too Much Subjects Masters Battle Jokes Institutions Democratic Republic Antiwar Conquest Governing Plunder

Author:Eugene V. Debs

“What a museum chooses to exhibit is sometimes less important than how such decisions are made and what values inform them. To have the crucial role of museum professionals usurped by self-serving tycoons in the name of economic imperative threatens not only the integrity of individual institutions but the very principle of art held in public trust.”

“Smart people instinctively understand the dangers of entrusting our future to self-serving leaders who use our institutions, whether in the corporate or social sectors, to advance their own interests.”

“Because it fulfills yearnings for security, safe haven, and connection that express our common humanity, civil marriage is an esteemed institution, and the decision whether and whom to marry is among life's momentous acts of self-definition.”

Self Humanity Decision Common Security Havens Safe Connections Institutions Definitions Yearning Safe Haven Common Humanity

Author:Margaret H. Marshall

“The working of great institutions is mainly the result of a vast mass of routine, petty malice, self interest, carelessness and sheer mistake. Only a residual fraction is thought.”

Self Interest Results Mistake Mass Institutions Routine Cynical Sheer Petty Self Interest Malice Fractions Carelessness Residual

Author:George Santayana

“Perhaps the only institution more puffed-up and self-important than academia is government.”

Important Self Government Politics Fear Atheism Institutions Rage Academia

Author:Neil Steinberg

“While all societies make their own imaginaries (institutions, laws, traditions, beliefs and behaviors), autonomous societies are those that their members are aware of this fact, and explicitly self-institute (αυτο-νομούνται). In contrast, the members of heteronomous societies attribute their imaginaries to some extra-social authority (i.e. God, ancestors, historical necessity)”

Self Facts Law Belief Social Members Authority Behavior Tradition Institutions Historical Extras Attributes Ancestor Contrast Institute Autonomous

Author:Cornelius Castoriadis

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Institutions Quotes