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Society Quotes

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Society Quotes

“Black people are the magical faces at the bottom of society's well. Even the poorest whites, those who must live their lives only a few levels above, gain their self-esteem by gazing down on us. Surely, they must know that their deliverance depends on letting down their ropes. Only by working together is escape possible. Over time, many reach out, but most simply watch, mesmerized into maintaining their unspoken commitment to keeping us where we are, at whatever cost to them or to us (Bell).”

PeopleKnowsLifeWellsSelfTogetherFacesBlackChangeWhiteLevelsWatchesSocietySelf EsteemDependsCostCommitmentGainsSocial JusticeBottomEsteemLive LifeReachingWorking TogetherBlack PeopleReach OutBellsRopeMaintainingPoorestEscapingDeliveranceUnspokenGazingWatch MeChallenging The Status QuoMesmerizingMesmerized
Book:Faces at the Bottom of the Well: The Permanence of Racism
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“Don't expect to build up the weak by pulling down the strong.”

PeopleRealityPoliticalStrongPeaceSocietyStrengthBuildingExpectationsWeaknessBuiltWeakRaisedConservativePresidentialPatrioticPullingStrength And WeaknessWeakeningStrong PeopleNever ExpectStrength WeaknessWeak PointsUnrealistic ExpectationsWeak And StrongGreat ConservativeWeak WillWeak Government
Book:Calvin Coolidge, His Ideals of Citizenship as Revealed Through His Speeches and Writings
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“To finish building the free society dreamed of by Washington, Franklin, and Jefferson, we must draw upon the resources of the enlightened imagination, which can be systematically developed by the spiritual sciences of India and Tibet. We have not yet tamed our own demons of racism, nationalism, sexism, and materialism. We have not yet made peace with a land we took by force and have only partly paid for. We are a teeming conglomeration of people from different tribes who have yet to embrace fully the humanness in one another. And none of us can be really free until all of us are.”

PeopleMadeDifferentSpiritualForceImaginationSocietyLandBuildingRacismDrawsResourcesIndiaPaidEmbraceDemonNationalismEnlightenedMaterialismSexismTribesFranklinFree SocietyTibetHumannessTamed
Author:Robert Thurman
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“Community connectedness is not just about warm fuzzy tales of civic triumph. In measurable and well-documented ways, social capital makes an enormous difference in our lives...Social capital makes us smarter, healthier, safer, richer, and better able to govern a just and stable democracy.”

PeopleWayLifeWellsAblePoliticalSocialChangeCommunityDifferencesDemocracyOur LivesSocietyWarmEnormousTalesTriumphChanging The WorldMaking A DifferenceCollaborationInteractionStableSmarterSocial ChangeChanging Your LifeMaking ChangesGoverningCivicsConnectednessFuzzySocial InteractionInteracting With OthersSocial Capital
Author:Robert D. Putnam
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“Liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmers, liquidate real estate. It will purge the rottenness out of the system. High costs of living and high living will come down. People will work harder, live a more moral life. Values will be adjusted, and enterprising people will pick up from less competent people.”

PeopleRealValuesOrderMoralSocietyHard WorkMoralityCostPicksLaborHarderValuableLive LifeExpensesFarmersEstatesFarmingCompetenceRottenAdjustmentCompetentWork HarderCost Of LivingPurgingMoral LifeEnterprisingSystemic Change
Author:Andrew Mellon
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“The tendency to conformity in our society is so strong that reasonably intelligent and well-meaning young people are willing to call white black. This is a matter of concern. It raises questions about our ways of education and about the values that guide our conduct.”

PeopleWayWellsMatterYoungValuesStrongBlackWhiteEducationSocietyWillingCallingConcernIntelligentRaisesGuidesToleranceTendenciesOur SocietyConformityBlack And WhiteRaises Questions
Author:Solomon Asch
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“We are living through one of the most fundamental shifts in history- a change in the actual belief structure of Western society. No economic, political, or military power can compare with the power of a change of mind. By deliberately changing their images of reality, people are changing the world.”

PeopleWorldMindRealityTodayPoliticalBeliefChangeHistoryPowerSocietyEconomicMilitaryFundamentalsStructureWesternCompareLife ChangingChanging The WorldShiftingWestern CultureMilitary PowerWestern SocietyPeople ChangingMind Changing
Author:Willis Harman
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“I believe we are a species with amnesia, I think we have forgotten our roots and our origins. I think we are quite lost in many ways. And we live in a society that invests huge amounts of money and vast quantities of energy in ensuring that we all stay lost. A society that invests in creating unconsciousness, which invests in keeping people asleep so that we are just passive consumers or products and not really asking any of the questions.”

PeopleThinkingWayBelieveHumansEnergyLostI BelieveSocietyProductsHugeAmountCreatingRootsAskingSpeciesForgottenConsumersUnconsciousQuantityPassiveAmnesiaUnconsciousness
Author:Graham Hancock
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“No single person, including the President of the United States, should ever be given the power to make a medical decision for potentially millions of Americans. Freedom over one's physical person is the most basic freedom of all, and people in a free society should be sovereign over their own bodies. When we give government the power to make medical decisions for us, we in essence accept that the state owns our bodies.”

PeopleGivingShouldPersonsStatesBodyGovernmentGivenPresidentFreedomDecisionUnitedAcceptingMillionsUnited StatesRightsSocietyAcceptanceEssenceIncludingMedicalOwnershipSovereignDispositionFree SocietyBasicsSingle Person
Author:Ron Paul
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“The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it.”

PeopleWorldEvilPeaceCommunityHistorySocietyDangerousDangerThis WorldIntegritySocial JusticePeacefulGood And EvilPatrioticApathyOther WorldsPlaces In The WorldDangerous ThingsPlaces To LiveEvil PeoplePeaceful WorldEvil ThingsGood Against EvilDangerous PlacesNecessary EvilDangerous WorldGood EvilEvil World
Author:Albert Einstein
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“A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.”

PeopleGovernmentSuccessPoliticalValuesPresidentLosesBusinessPrinciplesSocietyMilitaryEthicsHumorousAtheistPrivilegeWittyPlanningPatrioticVeteranMemorial DayThis SocietyElection DayAmerican PresidentInspirational MilitaryHonesty IntegrityHonesty And IntegrityEternal VigilancePresidents DayAmerica FreedomHonoring VeteransMemorial Day PoemsAmerican MilitaryHonest And IntegrityPrice Of FreedomAmerican FreedomMilitary LeaderGovernment And SocietyHonoring Veterans Memorial DaySocial ValuesVeteran AppreciationHonoring Memorial DayServicemenUnited States MilitaryAmerican VeteransGreat Memorial DayRights And PrivilegesPersonal ValuesMilitary MemorialChristian ValuesHonor The FallenVeteran MemorialMilitary VeteranVeterans And FreedomPrinciples And Values
Author:Dwight D. Eisenhower
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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.”

PeopleDoeReasonSocialTroubleSocietyBearsReason WhySensibleConventionsLeisureConventionalFrictionLeisure TimeConventionality
Author:George Bernard Shaw
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“In societies where modern conditions of productions prevail, all of life presents itself as an immense accumulation of spectacles. Everything that was directly lived has moved away into representation. The images detached from every aspect of life fuse in a common stream in which the unity of this life can no longer be re-established. Reality considered partially unfolds, in its own general unity as a pseudo-world apart, an object of mere contemplation . . . The spectacle is not a collection of images, but a social relation among people, mediated by images.”

PeopleWorldRealitySocialCommonSocietyModernConditionsObjectsAspectRelationMovedUnityMereProductionsThis LifeContemplationStreamsCollectionsImmenseRepresentationAccumulationDetachedPseudoAspects Of LifeFuseSpectaclesSocial RelationsWorlds Apart
Book:Society Of The Spectacle
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“When I consider how little of a rarity children are -- that every street and blind alley swarms with them -- that the poorest people commonly have them in most abundance -- that there are few marriages that are not blest with at least one of these bargains -- how often they turn out ill, and defeat the fond hopes of their parents, taking to vicious courses, which end in poverty, disgrace, the gallows, etc. -- I cannot for my life tell what cause for pride there can possibly be in having them.”

PeopleChildrenLittlesEndsTurnsCoursesCausesParentPovertySocietyStreetsPrideBlindDefeatIllAbundanceEtcViciousDisgraceBargainsPoorestAlleysSwarmsRarityGallows
Book:The Essays of Elia and Eliana
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“To associate with other like-minded people in small, purposeful groups is for the great majority of men and women a source of profound psychological satisfaction. Exclusiveness will add to the pleasure of being several, but at one; and secrecy will intensify it almost to ecstasy.”

PeopleMenPleasureGroupsSocietySourceMen And WomenMajorityAddProfoundSatisfactionPsychologicalEcstasyAssociatesSecrecy
Book:Complete Essays: 1930-1935
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“When people put their ballots in the boxes, they are, by that act, inoculated against the feeling that the government is not theirs. They then accept, in some measure, that its errors are their errors, its aberrations their aberrations, that any revolt will be against them. It's a remarkably shrewd and rather conservative arrangement when one thinks of it.”

PeopleThinkingFeelingsGovernmentPoliticsAcceptingDemocracySocietyErrorsConservativeBoxesArrangementsRevoltBallotsDemocracies HaveAberration
Author:John Kenneth Galbraith
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“Self-recognition is necessary to know one's road, but, knowing the road, the price of the mistakes and perils is worth paying. The following of that road will be all the discipline one needs. Discipline does not mean being molded by outside forces, but sticking to one's road against the forces that would deflect or bury the soul. People speak of finding one”

PeopleKnowsNeedsMeanDoeSoulSelfSpeakForceMistakeKnowingSocietyDisciplineFindingsFollowingRecognitionPerilBourneSelf Recognition
Book:The Radical Will: Selected Writings, 1911-1918
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“Most of the time, we see only what we want to see, or what others tell us to see, instead of really investigate to see what is really there. We embrace illusions only because we are presented with the illusion that they are embraced by the majority. When in truth, they only become popular because they are pounded at us by the media with such an intensity and high level of repetition that its mere force disguises lies and truths. And like obedient schoolchildren, we do not question their validity and swallow everything up like medicine. Why? Because since the earliest days of our youth, we have been conditioned to accept that the direction of the herd, and authority anywhere — is always right.”

PeopleThinkingWarPhilosophyTruthLyingCulturePoliticsFictionSocietyMankindMediaYouthMoralityAuthorityTrainingIllusionLiesMajorityCorruptionDeceptionProgrammingFree WillWrongSheepRightPopularityThinkPop CultureConditioningMisleadCorruptRight And WrongDeceptiveIllusionsMass MediaFollowMassesIndividualsPopularHerd MentalityMass CultureFollow Your Own PathFree ThinkersQuestion EverythingSociety And CultureHerdDecieveAuthority QuotesDirty PoliticsBad LeadershipMajority ViewFabricationsFraud And ConspiracyMisguideQuestion AuthoritySocial ProblemIndividuals Quotes
Book:Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem
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“People acted how they looked like. The reactions of the world to one’s appearance were an invisible estimation of one’s perception of themselves. The beautiful and the hideous each got treated a certain way—experiencing wildly different kinds of years. The beautiful were told phrases the hideous never heard. The beautiful struggled more with envy, while the hideous spent more time practicing courage, for things never easily bent their way. Every person accepted how they were treated and sank into that role. It showed in the way they sat. How their heads turn. When they spoke. If they spoke. Mannerisms were then not a matter of individual personality, but collective decree. Andrei would notice in a stranger all the things their body did, memorize them, and project them imaginarily on a different person. The imagined transference would never work! It seemed odd, like a miscalculation, to visualize a gorgeous Adonis walk with his head down and fidgety fingers the way a shy man did. There was undeniably a pattern of traits between strangers, courtesy of the strangers they meet.”

PeoplePhilosophyBeautyCourageSocietyPerceptionAppearanceUgliness
Book:A Happy Ghost
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“Live like a comet. An unstoppable rock through space. Travel with so great a speed that there is no time or desire for explanation. Live. Live without brakes," she said. His heart raced. Andrei shifted his gear to second. This was his key. The spine of an upstanding life was character. If all else was rid of, that was all a human had. The decisions in one’s own identity was like the wardrobe of the spirit, as discussed by Mars and Andrei. If a human being was fearless, she told him, they would act on all the things they desired. They would speak all the thoughts they were afraid to say. This pulled them closer to the sublime and away from obvious lands. Their life would gain access to moments of intimacy that were never far— only camouflaged. There was no one Andrei knew who lived like that. Not one. The comet was the most optimal way of life. Nothing could stop the person who decided to nail their foot on the gas. No interaction, rejection, weather, or obstacle of any kind would arrest them for too long. Everyone else had delays and was set back by their excuses. “Tea?” she asked. “Please.”

PeopleLifeInspirationMotivationCourageSocietyEncouragementBraveryDecisionsComet
Book:A Happy Ghost
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