“My definition of a decent society is one that first of all takes care of its losers, and protects its weak.”
Society is the agreement we all live under without ever signing a contract. These quotes examine culture, community, inequality, progress, and the ongoing negotiation between individual freedom and collective responsibility.
“The world is governed more by appearance than realities so that it is fully as necessary to seem to know something as to know it.”
“My definition of a decent society is one that first of all takes care of its losers, and protects its weak.”
“The imaginations which people have of one another are the solid facts of society.”
“We have to challenge the whole idea that it's acceptable for a society like Britain to have such a significant number of people who do not work one day of the week and don't have any possibility of improving the quality of their lives.”
“At its most basic the democratic contract is a simple one: the right to vote comes with a responsibility to society, through tax payments and citizenship.”
“People who work together will win, whether it be against complex football defenses, or the problems of modern society.”
“Awareness in our society has flipped all types of injustice on its head.”
“At the same, we need to remain sensitive to the reality that we are still an African society in which the majority of the people and communities live under severe deprivations and afflictions that are no fault of theirs.”
“Because society places a value on masculinity, gay men aspire to it. If you go to a gay club and the doorman says, 'You do realise this is a gay club, don't you lads?' you get all excited because you think, 'Wow, he thought I was straight!'”
“What is a society without a heroic dimension?”
“He who stands aloof runs the risk of believing himself better than others and misusing his critique of society as an ideology for his private interest.”
“It is rather a problem of how to secure the best use of resources known to any of the members of society, for ends whose relative importance only those individuals know.”
“In our society, the women who break down barriers are those who ignore limits.”
“I am certain no one sets out to be cruel, but our treatment of the elderly ill seems to have no philosophy to it. As a society, we should establish whether we have a policy of life at any cost.”
“You forget that you do choose your life and there are so many things to be grateful for and I feel like society has gotten to that point where we're always looking for the next and the better and we lose sight of what's actually in front of us.”
“This society cannot go forward, the way we have been going forward, where the gap between the rich and the poor keeps growing. It's not politically viable it's not morally right it's just not going to happen.”