"Society has enfeebled man, not merely by robbing him of the right to his own strength, but still more by making his strength insufficient for his needs."

"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."

"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."

"Heav'n forming each on other to depend, A master, or a servant, or a friend, Bids each on other for assistance call, Till one man's weakness grows the strength of all."

"I dread to think of a society devoid of love, compassion and humanity."

"Our genetically enriched descendants may regard existence without "dukkha" - the abolition of suffering - as the ethical foundation of any civilised society."

"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."

"The absence of hope can rot a society from within."

"What will Mrs. Grundy say?"

"This new rage for rhyming badly, Which late hath seized all ranks and classes, Down to that new estate 'the masses.'"

"La Société est l'union des hommes, et non pas les hommes."

"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]."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"When society requires to be rebuilt, there is no use in attempting to rebuild it on the old plan."

"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."

"We enter into a covenant that we shall build the society in which all South Africans, both black and white, will be able to walk tall, without any fear in their hearts, assured of their inalienable right to human dignity - a rainbow nation at peace with itself and the world."

"A system in which the two great commandments were, to hate your neighbour and to love your neighbour's wife."

"The Don Quixote of one generation may live to hear himself called the savior of society by the next."

"I see clearly that society is as much a science as astronomy; and, also, that, like poetry, one must be born with a genius for it."

"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."

"Society is like a large piece of frozen water; and skating well is the great art of social life."

"-- social life is fill’d With doubts and vain aspirings; solitude, When the imagination is dethroned, Is turned to weariness."

"He might have proved a useful adjunct, if not an ornament to society."

"Le sage quelquefois évite le monde de peur d'être ennuyè."

"I live in the crowds of jollity, not so much to enjoy company as to shun myself."

"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."

"We have really lost in our society the sense of the sacredness of life."

"A rational anarchist believes that concepts such as "state" and "society" and "government" have no existence save as physically exemplified in the acts of self-responsible individuals. He believes that it is impossible to shift blame, share blame, distribute blame … as blame, guilt, responsibility are matters taking place inside human beings singly and nowhere else. But being rational, he knows that not all individuals hold his evaluations, so he tries to live perfectly in an imperfect world … aware that his effort will be less than perfect yet undismayed by self-knowledge of self-failure."

"I do not think there is anything deserving the name of society to be found out of London."

"The noisy and extensive scene of crowds without company, and dissipation without pleasure."

"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."

"Every man is like the company he is wont to keep."

"Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members."