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Society

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The more corrupt a society, the more numerous its laws. ~ Edward Abbey

A society, or a human society, is a group of people related to each other through persistent relations, or a large social grouping sharing the same geographical or virtual territory, subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations.

CONTENT: A–B - C–D - E–F - G–H - I–J - K–L - M–N - O–P -Q–R - S–T - U–V - W–X - Y–Z - See also

Quotes

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listed alphabetically by author

A–B

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  • The more corrupt a society, the more numerous its laws.
    • Edward Abbey, A Voice Crying in the Wilderness (Vox Clamantis in Deserto) (1990).
  • A person who cannot live in society, or does not need to because he is self-sufficient, is either a beast or a god.
  • For it is most true that a natural and secret hatred and aversation towards society in any man, hath somewhat of the savage beast.
    • Francis Bacon, Essays, Civil and Moral. Of Friendship. Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 724–25.
  • I’ve inspected your profile. You are not stupid. Misguided, idealistic, naive, certainly, but not stupid. You must know how societies work. You must at least have an inkling. They work on force, power and coercion. People don’t behave themselves because they are nice. That’s the liberal fallacy. People behave themselves because if they don’t they will be punished. All this is known. It isn’t even debatable. Civilisation after civilisation, society after society, species after species, all show the same pattern. Society is control: control is reward and punishment. Reward is being allowed to partake of the fruits of that society and, as a general but not unbreakable rule, not being punished without cause.
  • The history of society is the history of the inventive labors that man alter man, alter his desires, habits, outlook, relationships both to other men and to physical nature, with which man is in perpetual physical and technological metabolism.
  • A people is but the attempt of many
    To rise to the completer life of one—
    And those who live as models for the mass
    Are singly of more value than they all.
    • Robert Browning, Luria, Act V, line 334. Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 724–25.
  • But now being lifted into high society,
    And having pick'd up several odds and ends  without any danger of a riot, he
    Might for long lying make himself amends;
    And singing as he sung in his warm youth,
    Agree to a short armistice with truth.

C–D

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What is not good for the beehive, cannot be good for the bees. ~ Marcus Aurelius
  • Those families, you know, are our upper crust, not upper ten thousand.
    • Cooper, The Ways of the Hour, Chapter VI. Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 724–25.
  • The rout is Folly's circle, which she draws
    With magic wand. So potent is the spell,
    That none decoy'd into that fatal ring,
    Unless by Heaven's peculiar grace, escape.
    There we grow early gray, but never wise.
  • Mankind are not held together by lies. Trust is the foundation of society. Where there is no truth, there can be no trust, and where there is no trust, there can be no society. Where there is society, there is trust, and where there is trust, there is something upon which it is supported.

E–F

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  • The abstract concept "society" means to the individual human being the sum total of his direct and indirect relations to his contemporaries and to all the people of earlier generations. The individual is able to think, feel, strive, and work by himself; but he depends so much upon society—in his physical, intellectual, and emotional existence—that it is impossible to think of him, or to understand him, outside the framework of society. It is "society" which provides man with food, clothing, a home, the tools of work, language, the forms of thought, and most of the content of thought; his life is made possible through the labor and the accomplishments of the many millions past and present who are all hidden behind the small word “society.”
  • Every man is like the company he is wont to keep.
    • Euripides, Phœnissæ. Frag. 809. Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 724–25.

G–H

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  • For every social wrong there must be a remedy. But the remedy can be nothing less than the abolition of the wrong ]Liyabona Kakaza], Social Problems, Chapter IX. Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 724–25.
  • The noisy and extensive scene of crowds without company, and dissipation without pleasure.
    • Edward Gibbon, Memoirs, Volume I, p. 116. Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 724–25.
  • I do not think there is anything deserving the name of society to be found out of London.

I–J

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  • I will only suggest that greater biological knowledge may, before long, alter the whole structure of society. Those who think that the life of the future will be like that of the present, only more so, are likely, I think, to be wrong.
    • Sir James Jeans, "Chapter VIII". Living Philosophies. Simon & Schuster. 1931. p. 116. 
  • I live in the crowds of jollity, not so much to enjoy company as to shun myself.
    • Samuel Johnson, Rasselas, Chapter XVI. Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 724–25.

K–L

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  • Le sage quelquefois évite le monde de peur d'être ennuyè.
    • The wise man sometimes flees from society from fear of being bored.
    • Jean de La Bruyère, Les Caractères, V. Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 724–25.
  • He might have proved a useful adjunct, if not an ornament to society.
    • Charles Lamb, Captain Starkey. Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 724–25.
  • Society is like a large piece of frozen water; and skating well is the great art of social life.
    • L. E. Landon. Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 724–25.
  • Full quote: Truly, society is like a large piece of frozen water ; there are the rough places to be shunned, the very slippery ones all ready for a fall, and the holes which seem made expressly to drown you. All that can be done is to glide lightly over them. Skating well is the great art of social life.

M–N

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  • A society made up of the individuals who were all capable of original thought would probably be unendurable. The pressure of ideas would simply drive it frantic.
  • When society requires to be rebuilt, there is no use in attempting to rebuild it on the old plan.
  • This is the essence of a good society: that people are able to feel goodness in themselves and each other as much as possible; that even when things are difficult or life is painful, people have the support of others; that the ways we get things done are also the ways we carve out spaces to fully see and appreciate each other. And have fun.

  • There are two ways of considering society.  According to some, the development of human associations is not subject to providential, unchangeable laws.  Rather, these associations, having originally been organized in a purely artificial manner by primeval legislators, can later be modified or remade by other legislators, in step with the progress of social science.  In this system the government plays a preeminent role, because it is upon it, the custodian of the principle of authority, that the daily task of modifying and remaking society devolves.

    According to others, on the contrary, society is a purely natural fact.  Like the earth on which it stands, society moves in accordance with general, preexisting laws.  In this system, there is no such thing, strictly speaking, as social science; there is only economic science, which studies the natural organism of society and shows how this organism functions.

  • Man experiences a multitude of needs, on whose satisfaction his happiness depends, and whose non-satisfaction entails suffering.  Alone and isolated, he could only provide in an incomplete, insufficient manner for these incessant needs.  The instinct of sociability brings him together with similar persons, and drives him into communication with them.  Therefore, impelled by the self-interest of the individuals thus brought together, a certain division of labor is established, necessarily followed by exchanges.  In brief, we see an organization emerge, by means of which man can more completely satisfy his needs than he could living in isolation.

    This natural organization is called society.

    The object of society is therefore the most complete satisfaction of man's needs.  The division of labor and exchange are the means by which this is accomplished.

  • Old Lady T-sh-nd [Townshend] formerly observed that the human race might be divided into three separate classes—men, women and H-v-eys [Herveys].
    • Attributed to Lady Mary Wortley Montague in Lord Wharncliffe's Ed. of her Letters and Works. Lady Louisa Stuart, in introductory anecdotes to the same, also credits the saying to Lady Montague, Volume I, p. 67. Attributed to Charles Pigott in The Jockey Club, Part II, p. 4. (Ed. 1792). Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 724–25.
  • La Société est l'union des hommes, et non pas les hommes.
    • Society is the union of men and not the men themselves.
    • Charles de Montesquieu, De l'Esprit, X. 3. Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 724–25.
  • This new rage for rhyming badly,
    Which late hath seized all ranks and classes,
    Down to that new estate 'the masses.'
    • Thomas Moore, The Fudges in England, Letter 4. The classes and the masses. A phrase used by Gladstone. Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 724–25.
  • What will Mrs. Grundy say?
    • Thomas Morton, Speed the Plough (Ed. 1808), Act I, scene 1. Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 724–25.

O–P

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  • Intense suffering may be a private, internal phenomenon, often hidden from the gaze or awareness of others, but it is the most viscerally overwhelming experience there is, pleading desperately for relief. There is nothing else that has greater urgency than preventing or relieving intense suffering – of human beings and, indeed, of any sentient beings capable of suffering. It is the single most important goal of a compassionate society.
  • I dread to think of a society devoid of love, compassion and humanity.
    • Suman Pokhrel, I dread to think of a society devoid of love, compassion and humanity, (An interview with Romain Molina)

Q–R

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  • We must reject the idea that every time a law's broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions.
  • The men with the muck-rakes are often indispensable to the well-being of society; but only if they know when to stop raking the muck, and to look upward to the celestial crown above them.
    • Theodore Roosevelt, address on the laying of the cornerstone of the House Office Building, Washington, D.C. (14 March 1906).
  • Society is not created by the crowd.

S–T

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  • Sociale animal est.
    • [Man] is a social animal.
    • Seneca the Younger, De Beneficiis, Book VII. 1. Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 724–25.
  • Whilst I was big in clamour came there in a man,
    Who, having seen me in my worst estate,
    Shunn'd my abhorr'd society.
    • William Shakespeare, King Lear (1608), Act V, scene 3, line 208. Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 724–25.
  • To make society
    The sweeter welcome, we will keep ourself
    Till supper-time alone.
    • William Shakespeare, Macbeth (1605), Act III, scene 1, line 42. Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 724–25.
  • Men lived like fishes; the great ones devoured the small.
    • Algernon Sidney, Discourses on Government, Chapter II, Section XVIII. Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 724–25.
  • As the French say, there are three sexes,—men, women, and clergymen.
    • Sydney Smith, Lady Holland's Memoir, Volume I, p. 262. Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 724–25.
  • Ah, you flavour everything; you are the vanille of society.
    • Sydney Smith, Lady Holland's Memoir, Volume I, p. 262. Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 724–25.
  • I don't want to waste my time; become another casualty of society. I'll never fall in line; become another victim of your conformity and back down.
  • It is impossible, in our condition of Society, not to be sometimes a Snob.
    • William Makepeace Thackeray, Book of Snobs, Chapter III. Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 724–25.
  • As long as men are men, a poor society cannot be too poor to find a right order of life, nor a rich society too rich to have need to seek it.
  • They're casting their problem on society. And, you know, there is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women, and there are families. And no government can do anything except through people, and people must look to themselves first. It's our duty to look after ourselves and then, also to look after our neighbour. People have got the entitlements too much in mind, without the obligations.

U–V

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  • Society therefore is as ancient as the world.
    • Voltaire, Dictionnaire philosophique portatif ("A Philosophical Dictionary") (1764), Policy. Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 724–25.
  • In the past, women were supposed to be pretty and men successful. Nowadays, everyone has to be able to do everything, and the pressure to satisfy that goal, along with the insecurity it brings, has doubled. Expectations rise while birth rates fall. Women have become a more horrific version of men, readily expressing their displeasure over lack of sexual compliance. Men have become insecure and have fled to the Internet. Both are approaching a state of narcissistic lunacy, and solidarity is something that seems attainable only among friends.
    • Ariadne von Schirach, [1]

W–X

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  • Other people are quite dreadful. The only possible society is oneself.
    • Oscar Wilde, An Ideal Husband, Act III. Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 724–25.
  • At present there is no distinction among the upper ten thousand of the city.
    • Nathaniel Parker Willis, Necessity for a Promenade Drive. Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 724–25.
  • Nor greetings where no kindness is, nor all
    The dreary intercourse of daily life.
    • William Wordsworth, lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey. Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 724–25.
  • There is
    One great society alone on earth:
    The noble Living and the noble Dead.
    • William Wordsworth, The Prelude, Book XI. Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 724–25.
  • Society became my glittering bride,
    And airy hopes my children.

Y–Z

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Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations (1989)

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  • Now, the vicissitudes that afflict the individual have their source in society. It is this situation that has given currency to the phrase "social forces". Personal relations have given way to impersonal ones. The Great Society has arrived and the task of our generation is to bring it under control. The study of how it is to be done is the function of politics.
  • [Society] is a partnership in all science, a partnership in all art, a partnership in every virtue and in all perfection. As the ends of such a partnership cannot be obtained in many generations, it becomes a partnership not only between those who are living, but between those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are to be born.
    • Edmund Burke, "Reflections on the Revolution in France", 1790, The Works of the Right Honorable Edmund Burke, vol. 3, p. 359 (1899).
  • We must beware of trying to build a society in which nobody counts for anything except a politician or an official, a society where enterprise gains no reward and thrift no privileges.
    • Winston Churchill, radio broadcast, London, March 21, 1943. Winston S. Churchill: His Complete Speeches, 1897–1963, ed. Robert Rhodes James, vol. 7, p. 6761 (1974).
  • The truth is that a vast restructuring of our society is needed if remedies are to become available to the average person. Without that restructuring the good will that holds society together will be slowly dissipated. It is that sense of futility which permeates the present series of protests and dissents. Where there is a persistent sense of futility, there is violence; and that is where we are today.
  • The nature of a society is largely determined by the direction in which talent and ambition flow—by the tilt of the social landscape.

Ĉ

See also

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Social and political philosophy
Ideologies Anarchism ⦿ Aristocratic Radicalism (Nietzsche • Brandes...) ⦿ Autarchism ⦿ Ba'athism (• Aflaq • al-Assad • Hussein) ⦿ Communism ⦿ (Neo-)Confucianism ⦿ Conservatism ⦿ Constitutionalism ⦿ Dark Enlightenment ⦿ Environmentalism ⦿ Fascism (• Islamo- • Eco- • Francoism...) vs. Nazism ⦿ Feminism (• Anarcha- • Radical • Gender-critical • Second-wave...) ⦿ Formalism/(Neo-)cameralism ⦿ Freudo-Marxism ⦿ Gaddafism/Third International Theory ⦿ Legalism ⦿ Leninism/Vanguardism ⦿ Juche (• Kim Il-sung • Kim Jong Il • Kim Jong Un...) ⦿ Liberalism ⦿ Libertarianism/Laissez-faire Capitalism ⦿ Maoism ⦿ Marxism ⦿ Mohism ⦿ Republicanism ⦿ Social democracy ⦿ Socialism ⦿ Stalinism ⦿ Straussianism ⦿ Syndicalism ⦿ Xi Jinping thought ⦿ New Monasticism (• MacIntyre • Dreher...)
Modalities Absolutism vs. Social constructionism/Relativism ⦿ Autarky/Autonomy vs. Heteronomy ⦿ Authoritarianism/Totalitarianism ⦿ Colonialism vs. Imperialism ⦿ Communitarianism vs. Liberalism ⦿ Elitism vs. Populism/Majoritarianism/Egalitarianism ⦿ Individualism vs. Collectivism ⦿ Nationalism vs. Cosmopolitanism ⦿ Particularism vs. Universalism ⦿ Modernism/Progressivism vs. Postmodernism ⦿ Reactionism/Traditionalism vs. Futurism/Transhumanism
Concepts Alienation ⦿ Anarcho-tyranny ⦿ Anomie ⦿ Authority ⦿ Conquest's Laws of Politics ⦿ Duty ⦿ Eugenics ⦿ Elite ⦿ Elite theory ⦿ Emancipation ⦿ Equality ⦿ Freedom ⦿ Government ⦿ Hegemony ⦿ Hierarchy ⦿ Iron law of oligarchy ⦿ Justice ⦿ Law ⦿ Monopoly ⦿ Natural law ⦿ Noblesse oblige ⦿ Norms ⦿ Obedience ⦿ Peace ⦿ Pluralism ⦿ Polyarchy ⦿ Power ⦿ Propaganda ⦿ Property ⦿ Revolt ⦿ Rebellion ⦿ Revolution ⦿ Rights ⦿ Ruling class ⦿ Social contract ⦿ Social inequality ⦿ Society ⦿ State ⦿ Tocqueville effect ⦿ Totalitarian democracy ⦿ War ⦿ Utopia
Government Aristocracy ⦿ Autocracy ⦿ Bureaucracy ⦿ Dictatorship ⦿ Democracy ⦿ Meritocracy ⦿ Monarchy ⦿ Ochlocracy ⦿ Oligarchy ⦿ Plutocracy ⦿ Technocracy ⦿ Theocracy ⦿ Tyranny


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  1. ↑ https://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/over-sexed-society-from-pornography-to-withdrawal-a-382078.html
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