Like its politicians and its wars, society has the teenagers it deserves.
—J. B. Priestley
To say that there is a case for heroes is not to say that there is a case for hero worship. The surrender of decision, the unquestioning submission to leadership, the prostration of the average man before the Great Man—these are the diseases of heroism, and they are fatal to human dignity.… History amply shows that it is possible to have heroes without turning them into gods. And history shows, too, that when a society, in flight from hero worship, decides to do without great men at all, it gets into troubles of its own.
—Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.
In our society, we've become myopic and obsessive about one particular kind of love: dyadic love, which takes the form of romance, sex, marriage. As a result we end up asking all the wrong questions. Books about relationships talk about how to "get" the love you need, how to "keep" love, and so on. But the right question to ask is "How do I become a more loving human being?
—Sam Keen
My definition of a free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular.
—Adlai E. Stevenson Jr.
A society that gives to one class all the opportunities for leisure and to another all the burdens of work condemns both classes to spiritual sterility.
—Lewis Mumford
He who is unable to live in society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for himself, must be either a beast or a god.
—Aristotle
Society, my dear, is like salt water, good to swim in but hard to swallow.
—Arthur Stringer
A society of sheep must in time beget a government of wolves.
—Bertrand de Jouvenal
Be very circumspect in the choice of thy company. In the society of thine equals thou shalt enjoy more pleasure; in the society of thy superiors thou shalt find more profit. To be the best in the company is the way to grow worse.
—Irv Kupcinet
But society has now fairly got the better of individuality; and the danger which threatens human nature is not the excess, but the deficiency, of personal impulses and preferences.
—John Stuart Mill
Everyone who receives the protection of society owes a return for the benefit.
—Jiddu Krishnamurti
The needs of society determine its ethics.
—Oscar Wilde
Do not speak ill of society, Algie. Only people who can't get in do that.
—Robert Frost
I'm against a homogenized society, because I want the cream to rise.
—Robertson Davies
There is no nonsense so gross that society will not, at some time, make a doctrine of it and defend it with every weapon of communal stupidity.
—Francis Bacon