Quotes about Society

As I understand the American Founders, the most brilliant and daring idea they had was that it's possible to create a free society that could stay free forever.

I see the wielding of a pronoun as something that can be freeing for some members of society but a shackle to others like myself.

Women never have a half-hour in all their lives (excepting before or after anybody is up in the house) that they can call their own, without fear of offending or of hurting someone. Why do people sit up so late, or, more rarely, get up so early? Not because the day is not long enough, but because they have 'no time in the day to themselves.' 1852

A woman cannot live in the light of intellect. Society forbids it. Those conventional frivolities, which are called her 'duties', forbid it. Her 'domestic duties', high-sounding words, which, for the most part, are but bad habits (which she has not the courage to enfranchise herself from, the strength to break through), forbid it.

Did freedom have to mean abolishing common decency?

Prisons are needed only to provide the illusion that courts and police are effective. They're a kind of job insurance.

One of the most dangerous things in the universe is an ignorant people with real grievances. That is nowhere near as dangerous, however, as an informed and intelligent society with grievances.

what other society would have such a natural regard for her privacy and comfort that the giver would intrude only enough to deposit the gift and not inflict her with the donor?

The Duke felt in this moment that his own dearest dream was to end all class distinctions and never again think of deadly order.

Are we a troop together or a band of savages?

In our society, people shouldn't be quick to take offense. It's frequently suicidal.

The censure of your peers? But what if your peers balked at no obscenity? You could do anything.