Society Quotes - Page 12

They who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

- written for the Pennsylvania Assembly in its Reply to the Governor, 11 November 1755

I find that the world is changing much, much faster than I can even bitch about it.

Aos políticos: «menos liberalismo e mais carácter»; aos homens de letras: «menos eloquência e mais ideia»; aos cidadãos em geral: «menos progresso e mais moral».

There is something about the state putting the power to bully into the hands of subnormal, sadistic apes that makes my blood boil.

They deem him their worst enemy who tells them the truth. -Plato, philosopher (427-347 BCE)

Politics is the name we give to the orchestration of power in any society.

Corrupt citizens breed corrupt rulers, and it is the mob who finally decides when virtue shall die.

No system that implies control of society by privilege seekers has ever ended any other way but collapse

Everybody gets everything handed to them. The rich inherit it. I don't mean just inheritance of money. I mean what people take for granted among the middle and upper classes, which is nepotism, the old-boy network.

What should have died along with communism is the belief that modern societies can be run on a single principle, whether that of planning under the general will or that of free-market allocations.

everybody feels the evil, but no one has courage or energy enough to seek the cure

Our political system is now run by the Big People for their own interests. If they ever deign to notice the Little People, it is with disdain and contempt.

Očevidno je da ne postoji nikakav smisao povijesti koji bi se dao spasiti leđima okrenutim prema Auschwitzu niti postoji Bog kojemu se čovjek može klanjati leđa okrenutih prema Auschwitzu. Kao teološko-politička katastrofa Auschwitz ne ostavlja pošteđenima niti kršćanstvo i njegovu teologiju niti društvo i njegovu politiku.

Wenn die Blattläuse auf den Rosenzweigen sitzen und sich hübsch dick und grün gesogen haben, dann kommen die Ameisen und saugen ihnen den filtrierten Saft aus den Leibern. Und so geht's weiter, und wir haben's so weit gebracht, daß oben immer an einem Tage mehr verzehrt wird, als unten in einem beigebracht werden kann.

Somehow, we’ve managed to create a social, cultural and political environment in which even our youngest citizens have been so deeply indoctrinated to hate. Who else, I wonder, have we indoctrinated them against? Little Muslim kids against Hindus? Little Hindu kids against Muslims? Little Dalits against all Yadavs?

We are so sluggish in our mentality that we think the world's problems are not our business, that they have to be resolved by the United Nations or by substituting new leaders for the old.

It is not our politicians who will lead the change. The only person who can change our politics is the engaged citizen.

Democracy without respect for individual rights sucks. It's just ganging up against the weird kid, and I'm always the weird kid.

Politics divides a nation, instead of bringing its people together.

When the mechanic has to mend a watch he lets the wheels run out; but the living watchworks of the state have to be repaired while they act, and a wheel has to be exchanged for another during its revolutions.