Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Comment on this quote Share via Email Print this Page [261-280] of 291 Society quotesSociety QuotesSociety Previous 20 quotes Next 20 quotes Censorship reflects a society's lack of confidence in itself. It is a hallmark of an authoritarian regime.~ Justice Potter Stewart To put it baldly, there are two ways to become wealthy: to create wealth or to take wealth away from others. The former adds to society. The latter typically subtracts from it, for in the process of taking it away, wealth gets destroyed. A monopolist who overcharges for his product takes money from those whom he is overcharging and at the same time destroys value. To get his monopoly price, he has to restrict production.~ Joseph E. Stiglitz Private opinion is weak, but public opinion is almost omnipotent.~ Harriet Beecher Stowe Liberty is to the collective body what health is to every individual body. Without health no pleasure can be tasted by man; without liberty, no happiness can be enjoyed by society.~ Henry St. John We want a society in which we are free to make choices, to make mistakes, to be generous and compassionate. That is what we mean by a moral society – not a society in which the State is responsible for everything, and no one is responsible for the State.~ Margaret Thatcher We pass the word around; we ponder how the case is put by different people; we read the poetry; we meditate over the literature; we play the music; we change our minds; we reach an understanding. Society evolves this way, not by shouting each other down, but by the unique capacity of unique, individual human beings to comprehend each other.~ Lewis Thomas There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.~ Henry David Thoreau Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new.~ Henry David Thoreau As against the "invisible hand" of Adam Smith, there has to be a visible hand of politicians whose objective is to have the kind of society that is caring and humane.~ Pierre Trudeau Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.~ Mark Twain It is better to deserve honors and not have them than to have them and not deserve them.~ Mark Twain We are discreet sheep; we wait to see how the drove is going, and then go with the drove. We have two opinions: one private, which we are afraid to express; and another one - the one we use - which we force ourselves to wear to please Mrs. Grundy, until habit makes us comfortable in it, and the custom of defending it presently makes us love it, adore it, and forget how pitifully we came by it. Look at it in politics.~ Mark Twain When we remember we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained.~ Mark Twain It is our nature to conform; it is a force which not many people can successfully resist. What is its seat? The inborn requirement of self-approval.~ Mark Twain The essential support and encouragement comes from within, arising out of the mad notion that your society needs to know what only you can tell it.~ John Updike An unexamined idea, to paraphrase Socrates, is not worth having and a society whose ideas are never explored for possible error may eventually find its foundations insecure.~ Mark Van Doren We are all full of weakness and errors, let us mutually pardon each other our follies. It is the first law of nature.~ Voltaire This, then, is freedom in the external life of man -- that he is independent of the arbitrary power of his fellows.~ Ludwig von Mises True, a socialistic society could see that 1000 litres of wine were better than 800 litres. It could decide whether or not 1000 litres of wine were to be preferred to 500 litres of oil. Such a decision would involve no calculation. The will of some man would decide. But the real business of economic administration, the adaptation of means to ends only begins when such a decision is taken. And only economic calculation makes this adaptation possible. Without such assistance, in the bewildering chaos of alternative materials and processes the human mind would be at a complete loss. Whenever we had to decide between different processes or different centres of production, we would be entirely at sea.~ Ludwig von Mises From the utopian viewpoint, the United States constitution is a singularly hard-bitten and cautious document, for it breathes the spirit of skepticism about human altruism and incorporates a complex system of checks, balances and restrictions, so that everybody is holding the reins on everybody else.~ Chad Walsh Previous 20 quotes Next 20 quotes Share on Facebook Tweet Email Print