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f734a4c I believe he was feeling a bit nervous. Possibly it was my costume that took him aback. I was dressed quite well, even elegantly, and looked as if I belonged to the best society. fashion identity society style Fyodor Dostoyevsky
3f0d35c Mark, trying his best to distance himself from the cruel and pathetic 21st century, hadn't listened to the news reports, not even when the dark green jeeps and helicopters showed up in town, men dressed in identical uniforms, just like in school, always standing with stony faces, setting up shelters and warning signals and food storage boxes. And as the public service announcements and racist propaganda bloomed onto the screens in every classroom, Mark's only observation was that the United States still had such a long way to go. When times were dire, they resorted to using inaccurate stereotypes and ignorance as a weapon, with an impressionable society always willing to believe without further question. army bigitry box classroom education ignorance military nuclear nuclear-war propaganda public-service-announcement racism radiation radioactive school screen sheeple society stereotype storage-box united-states war weapon Rebecca McNutt
1860bb9 Not everyone born free and equal, but everyone made equal. Each man the image of every other; then all are happy, for there are no mountains to make them cower, to judge themselves against. So! A book is a loaded gun in the house next door. Burn it. Take the shot from the weapon. Breach man's mind. Who knows who might be the target of the well-read man. Me? I won't stomach them for a minute. society Ray Bradbury
73b2440 Popularity gives you power only over people who care about being popular. Ostracism gives you power only over those who fear being ostracized. law society Robin Wasserman
078c53f A man's work reveals him. In social intercourse he gives you the surface that he wishes the world to accept, but in his book or his picture the real man delivers himself defenceless. No affectation of peculiarity can conceal a commonplace mind. No one can produce the most casual work without disclosing the innermost secrets of his soul. facade persona personality society work W. Somerset Maugham
39ccbbc The verdict of the coroner's inquest had been that Adrian Finn (22) had killed himself 'while the balance of his mind was disturbed.' I remember how angry that conventional phrase made me: I would have sworn on oath that Adrian's was the one mind which would never lose its balance. But in the law's view, if you killed yourself you were by definition mad, at least at the time you were committing the act. The law, and society, and religion all said it was impossible to be sane, healthy, and kill yourself. Perhaps those authorities feared that the suicide's reasoning might impugn the nature and value of life as organised by the state which paid the coroner? And then, since you had been declared temporarily mad, your reasons for killing yourself were also assumed to be mad. So I doubt anyone paid much attention to Adrian's argument, with its references to philosophers ancient and modern, about the superiority of the intervening act over the unworthy passivity of merely letting life happen to you. law philosophy society suicide suicide-note the-sense-of-an-ending Julian Barnes
040ff02 "Don't think I know you," Harold said, grinning, as they shook. He had a firm grip. Larry's hand was pumped up and down exactly three times and let go. It reminded Larry of the time he had shaken hands with George Bush back when the old bushwhacker had been running for President. It had been at a political rally, which he had attended on the advice of his mother, given many years ago. If you can't afford a movie, go to the zoo. If you can't afford the zoo, go see a politician." society truth Stephen King
2119d49 "The mass depiction of the modern woman as a "beauty" is a contradiction: Where modern women are growing, moving, and expressing their individuality, as the myth has it, "beauty" is by definition inert, timeless, and generic. That this hallucination is necessary and deliberate is evident in the way "beauty" so directly contradicts women's real situation." media society Naomi Wolf
994dfd4 Well, let's argue this out, Mr Blank. You, who represent Society, have the right to pay me four hundred francs a month. That's my market value, for I am an inefficient member of Society, slow in the uptake, uncertain, slightly damaged in the fray, there's no denying it. So you have the right to pay me four hundred francs a month, to lodge me in a small, dark room, to clothe me shabbily, to harass me with worry and monotony and unsatisfied longings till you get me to the point when I blush at a look, cry at a word. We can't all be happy, we can't all be rich, we can't all be lucky - and it would be so much less fun if we were. Isn't it so, Mr Blank? There must be the dark background to show up the bright colours. Some must cry so that the others may be able to laugh the more heartily. cry damaged fun happiness happy harass inefficient job longings monotony pay rich slow society worry Jean Rhys
3649a25 "It doesn't take ten years of study, you don't need to go to the University, to find out that this is a damned good world gone wrong. Gone wrong, because it is being monkeyed with by people too greedy and mean and wrong-hearted altogether to do the right thing by our common world. They've grabbed it and they won't let go. They might lose their importance; they might lose their pull. Everywhere it's the same. Beware of the men you make your masters. Beware of the men you trust. We've only got to be clear-headed to sing the same song and play the same game all over the world, we common men. We don't want Power monkeyed with, we don't want Work and Goods monkeyed with, and, above all, we don't want Money monkeyed with. That's the elements of politics everywhere. When these things go wrong, we go wrong. That's how people begin to feel it and see it in America. That's how we feel it here -- when we look into our minds. That's what common people feel everywhere. That's what our brother whites -- "poor whites" they call them -- in those towns in South Carolina are fighting for now. Fighting our battle. Why aren't we with them? We speak the same language; we share the same blood. Who has been keeping us apart from them for a hundred and fifty-odd years? Ruling classes. Politicians. Dear old flag and all that stuff! Our school-books never tell us a word about the American common man; and his school-books never tell him a word about us. They flutter flags between us to keep us apart. Split us up for a century and a half because of some fuss about taxing tea. And what are our wonderful Labour and Socialist and Communist leaders doing to change that? What are they doing to unite us English-speaking common men together and give us our plain desire? Are they doing anything more for us than the land barons and the factory barons and the money barons? Not a bit of it! These labour leaders of to-day mean to be lords to-morrow. They are just a fresh set of dishonest trustees. Look at these twenty-odd platforms here! Mark their needless contradictions! Their marvellous differences on minor issues. 'Manoeuvres!' 'Intrigue.' 'Personalities.' 'Monkeying.' 'Don't trust him, trust me!' All of them at it. Mark how we common men are distracted, how we are set hunting first after one red herring and then after another, for the want of simple, honest interpretation..." politicians politics power society H.G. Wells
1a94b26 Liking other people is an illusion we have to cherish if we are to live in society. It is one I have long ago banished from my life. You wish to be liked. I wish simply to be. banished banishment be cherish illusion liking live people society wish John Fowles
7db2421 Osman and Prideep had been in my employment for some weeks. Every Friday I would take the to lunch. It was the high point of their calender. During the meal I would harangue them as a reminder of what they had been hired for: but my orations never seemed to increase their output. I realised later that, in the East, a commitment to produce does not automatically accompany employment. india society values Tahir Shah
c647ba8 "The law was not society, it began. Society was people like himself and Owen and Brillhart, who hadn't the right to take the life of another member of society. And yet the law did. "And yet the law is supposed to be the will of society at least. It isn't even that. Or maybe it is collectively," he added, aware that as always he was doubling back before he come to a point, making things as complex as possible in trying to make them certain." society Patricia Highsmith
b882bee The police can use violence to say, expel citizens from a public park because they are enforcing duly constituted laws. Laws gain their legitimacy from the Constitution. The Constitution gains its legitimacy from something called 'the people.' But how did 'the people' actually grant legitimacy to the Constitution? As the American and French revolutions make clear: basically, through acts of illegal violence. So what gives the police the right to use force to suppress the very thing-a popular uprising-that granted them their right to use force to begin with? democracy police politics rights society violence David Graeber
0f23521 So how do the people resist unjust authority, which, we all agree, they must and should do and have done in the past? The best solution anyone has come up with is to say that violent revolutions can be avoided (and therefore, violent mobs legitimately suppressed) if 'the people' are understood to have the right to challenge the laws through nonviolent civil disobedience. democracy politics protests revolution society David Graeber
3601f72 Yet for some reason, we as a society have collectively decided it's better to have millions of human beings spending years of their lives pretending to type into spreadsheets or preparing mind maps for PR meetings than freeing them to knit sweaters, play with their dogs, start a garage band, experiment with new recipes, or sit in cafes arguing about politics, and gossiping about their friends' complex polyamorous love affairs. joy productivity purpose society time-allocation David Graeber
2e6cc27 Eccentrics with unseeing eyes glided through, savouring amid so much society their own particular loneliness and private sins and sorrows. eccentrics iris-murdoch loneliness sins society sorrows the-green-knight Iris Murdoch
2b1a971 "Men bore me; Women abhor me; society J.D. Salinger
8d86507 "Like every thoughtful parent in every age of history, Neil consoled himself, "My generation failed, but this new one is going to change the entire world, and go piously to the polls even on rainy election-days, and never drink more than one cocktail, and end all war." -- generations politics social-good society voting war young-people Sinclair Lewis
1c7b51b All the girls stared at me with hatred in their eyes. It was a big drama that had to be acted out. But deep down, nobody really cared. The other girls didn't care about Jennifer. Jennifer didn't care about me. I didn't care about anything. Everyone was so full of crap. drama girls society Blake Nelson
5d399f0 Hidden Highlands was maybe a little richer but not that different from many of the other small, wealthy and scared enclaves nestled in the hills and valleys around Los Angeles. Walls and gates, guardhouses and private security forces were the secret ingredients of the so-called melting pot of southern California. los-angeles melting-pots society southern-california wealth Michael Connelly
76fcea3 Oh, quit it! You're the possessor of a beautiful wife, a beautiful gas-stove, and you were going to forget all this race-hysteria. race society Sinclair Lewis
b6a32d2 It doesn't follow that a nasty habit of mind is any less nasty because it's ancestral. It doesn't follow you can't cure it. Why scratch fleas for ever? Gambling, speculation, is a social disease. It's as natural and desirable as -- syphilis... history social-disease society H.G. Wells
0dcd21a The fact that none of these civic worriers had ever heard of such a case was unimportant, because they all had heard of somebody who had heard of it! rumors society Sinclair Lewis
c26ccc4 "But, wherever a man goes, men will pursue and paw him with their dirty institutions, and, if they can, constrain him to belong to their desperate odd-fellow society. It is true, I might have resisted forcibly with more or less effect, might have run "amok" against society; but I preferred that society should run "amok" against me, it being the desperate party." society solitude Henry David Thoreau
f04927c "This sense of insecurity was falling about the entire planet and though people went on doing the things they usually did, they had none of the assurance, the happy-go-lucky "all-right" feeling, that had hitherto sustained normal men. They went on doing their customary things because they could not think of anything else to do. They tried to believe, and many did succeed in believing, that there would presently be a turn for the better. They did nothing to bring about that turn for the better; they just hoped it would occur." insecurity society world H.G. Wells
8d6a4de Well, anyhow, the practical outcome of all these damn democratic ideas, is that men of our quality -- yes, damn it! we have a quality -- excuse themselves from the hard and thankless service they owe -- not to the crowd, Dick, but to the race. (Much good it will do is to shirk like that in the long run.) We will not presume, we say, no. We shrug our shoulders and leave the geese, the hungry sheep, the born followers, call them what you will, to the leaders who haven't our scruples. The poor muts swallow those dead old religions no longer fit for human consumption, and we say 'let 'em.' They devour their silly newspapers. They let themselves be distracted from public affairs by games, by gambling, by shows and coronations and every soft of mass stupidity, while the stars in their courses plot against them. We say nothing. Nothing audible. We mustn't destroy the simple faith that is marching them to disaster. We mustn't question their decisions. That wouldn't be democratic. And then we sit here and say privately that the poor riff-raff are failing to adapt themselves to those terrible new conditions -- as if they had had half a chance of knowing how things stand with them. They are shoved about by patriotisms, by obsolete religious prejudices, by racial delusions, by incomprehensible economic forces. Amid a growth of frightful machinery... humanity humans society H.G. Wells
56a8373 The essence of the Revolution is to abolish the attainment of unqualified power of man over man either by vote-getting, money-pressure or crude terror. The Revolution repudiates profit or terror altogether as methods of human intercourse. It turns the attention of men and women back from a frantic and futile struggle for the means of power, a struggle against our primary social instincts, to an innate urgency to make and to a beneficial competition for preeminence in social service. It recalls man to a clean and creative life from the entanglements and perversion of secondary issues into which he has fallen. It replaces property and official authority by the compelling prestige of sound achievement. Eminent service remains the only source of influence left in the world . . . money power revolution society terror H.G. Wells
a6f82ea Although there are certain needs, such as hunger, thirst, sex, which are common to man, those drives which make for the differences in men's characters, like love and hatred, the lust for power and the yearning for submission, the enjoyment of sensuous pleasure and the fear of it, are all products of the social process. The most beautiful as well as the most ugly inclinations of man are not part of a fixed and biologically given human nature, but result from the social process which creates man. In other words, society has not only a suppressing function - although it has that too - but it has also a creative function. human-nature social-psychology society Erich Fromm
b55f5f5 "It is the task of the "science of man" to arrive eventually at a correct description of what deserves to be called human nature. What has often been called "human nature" is but one of its many manifestations - and often a pathological one - and the function of such mistaken definition usually has been to defend a particular type of society as being the necessary one." human-nature human-sciences society Erich Fromm
eaf5ca7 was so imbued with the spirit of his culture that he could not go beyond certain limits which were set by it. These very limits became limitations for his understanding even of the sick individual; they handicapped his understanding of the normal individual and of the irrational phenomena operating in social life. sigmund-freud society Erich Fromm
09292bd [...] the people who find fault with society are too apt to regard it as an end and not a means, just as the people who despise money speak as if its only use were to be kept in bags and gloated over? Isn't it fairer to look at them both as opportunities, which may be used either stupidly or intelligently, according to the capacity of the user? philosophy society Edith Wharton
d687190 There's a problem with the hierarchical orientation, though. When the numbers get too big, the thing breaks down. A pecking order can hold only so many chickens. pecking-order society Steven Pressfield
9b95416 The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles. class-struggle communism history politics proletariat society unionism Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
006d71c Then they're always trying to sell you something. Everything is based on forcing people to buy. If you can't buy what they're selling, you're a zero in the system. society Don DeLillo
472d51a Guilt, did I say? In what consists ours, unless in the opinion of an ill-judging world? society Matthew Gregory Lewis
b42e34b Alecto isn't a person! He's just something that society made and then threw away, a memory that refuses to die. canada cape-breton coal created death dying kodak-moment memory mining nostalgia nova-scotia person pollution society steel super-8 threw Rebecca McNutt
362f8ce People who want nothing need nothing more than power. power society wealth Rebecca McNutt
3f7e3f6 If this society ascribes roles to Black men which they are not allowed to fulfill, is it Black women who must bend and alter our lives to compensate, or is it society that needs changing? racism social-change society Audre Lorde
bd11877 Common right is nought but the protection of all radiating over the right of each. This protection of all is termed Fraternity. The point of intersection of all these aggregated sovereignties is called Society. This intersection being a junction, this point is a knot. Hence comes what is called the social tie. society Victor Hugo
fe83fc9 Oh, implacable march of human societies! Oh, losses of men and of souls on the way! Ocean into which falls all that the law lets slip! Disastrous absence of help! Oh, moral death! The sea is the inexorable social night into which the penal laws fling their condemned. The sea is the immensity of wretchedness. The soul, going down stream in this gulf, may become a corpse. Who shall resuscitate it? les-misérables society Victor Hugo
b3ed737 As recently as the grunge era, there remained a bohemian cachet in casually mentioning that you didn't own a TV. But nobody thinks like that anymore. Today, claiming you don't own a TV simply means you're poor (or maybe depressed). In one ten-year span, high-end television usurped the cultural positions of film, rock, and literary fiction. society Chuck Klosterman
8542bd3 The person who distrusts himself has no touchstone for reality - for this touchstone can be only oneself. Such a person interpose between himself and reality nothing less than a labyrinth of attitudes. And these attitudes, furthermore, though the person is usually unaware of it (is unaware of so much), are historical and public attitudes. culture introjects received-values self-deception society James Baldwin
072ab11 A funeral is like a little game, really. You have to just play along and say the right thing and behave the right way until it's over. Be pleasant but don't smile too much; be sad but don't overdo it or the family will feel worse than they already do. Be hopeful but don't let your optimism be taken as a lack of empathy or an inability to deal with the reality. Because if anybody was to be truly honest there would be a lot of arguments, finger-pointing, tears, snot, and screaming. empathy funerals honesty life optimism reality society sympathy Cecelia Ahern
f74bdb4 "They ought not to have let things come to this," he said, but he was never very clear even to himself who or why "They" were nor what "This" was. Some person or persons unknown was to blame. He hated these unknowns in general. But he was unable to focus his hatred into hating some responsible person or persons in particular. If only he could find who it was had neglected to do something, or had done something wrong or messed about with things, they would catch it. He'd get even with them somehow." hatred responsibility society H.G. Wells
5ef0c58 "It seems so to me," said his wife, as if she were producing a new thought." society Edith Wharton
02d9443 I'm convinced that a few people are going to stand up and do something, anything, to get this world back in our hands. american-history dreams motivational people society world Rebecca McNutt
52d4e03 Writers find it tempting to draw analogies between those trajectories of human societies and the trajectories of individual human lives - to talk of a society's birth, growth, peak, senescence, and death - and to assume that the long period of senescence that most of us traverse between our peak years and our deaths also applies to societies. society Jared Diamond
165ce4e We have power as consumers. We can exercise that power all the time by not choosing to invest time, energy or funds to support the production of mass media images that do not reflect life-enhancing values, that undermine a love ethic. change consummerism generosity humanity love optimism principles society values bell hooks
dfe0866 The author relates the progress of inoculation against smallpox in America with the interaction between an African slave named Onisimus whose homeland knew how to treat the malady and and leading clergyman Cotton Mather who was curious and open-minded enough to listen to him. curiosity humility open-mindedness society Robert J. Allison
92fa615 If man were infinitely malleable, there would have been nor revolutions; there would have been no change because a culture would have succeeded in making man submit to its patterns without resistance. But man, being only relatively malleable, has always reacted with protest against conditions which made the disequilibrium between the social order and his human needs too drastic or unbearable. The attempt to reduce this disequilibrium and the need to establish a more acceptable and desirable solution is at the very core of the dynamism of the evolution of man in history. Man's protest arose not only because of material suffering; specifically human needs...are an equally strong motivation for revolution and the dynamics of change. culture evolution malleability politics receptiveness resistance revolution society Erich Fromm
d7cea25 He took the woman from her bed, pretending not to notice the question posed in his mind: Why do you always experiment on women? He didn't care to admit that the inference had any validity. She just happened to be the first one he's come across, that was all. What about the man in the living room, though? For God's sake! he flared back. I'm not going to rape the woman! Crossing your fingers, Neville? Knocking on wood? He ignored that, beginning to suspect his mind of harboring an alien. Once he might have termed it conscience. Now it was only an annoyance. Morality, after all, had fallen with society. He was his own ethic. Makes a good excuse, doesn't it, Neville? Oh, shut up. ethic harassment instinct morality rape right-and-wrong sexual-desire society Richard Matheson
31b7e7e Getting fired, despite sometimes coming as a surprise and leaving you scrambling to recover, is often a godsend. Most people aren't lucky enough to get fired and die a slow spiritual death over 30-40 years of tolerating the mediocre. job-security society Timothy Ferriss
4a3a3c6 I dont believe knowing can save us. What is constant in history is greed and foolishness and a love of blood and this is a thing that even God--who knows all that can be known--seems powerless to change. history people society society-problem violence world Cormac McCarthy
7180284 Society is held together by our need; we bind it together with legend, myth, coercion, fearing that without it we will be hurled into that void, within which, like the earth before the Word was spoken, the foundations of society are hidden. society James Baldwin
54a4919 "Each time we talk, he listens to me ramble, then he tries to pass on some sort of life lesson. He warns me that money is not the most important thing, contrary to the popular view on campus. He tells me I need to be "fully human." He speaks of the alienation of youth and the need for "connectedness" with the society around me." connect human lesson life money ramble society talk youth Mitch Albom
6b465a6 "Oh, sometimes it's just easier to please people," Maria said finally." individuality obedience society Lois Lowry
b8d5649 Those who are ignorant should be taught all you can teach them; society is to blame for not providing free public education; and society will answer for the obscurity it produces. If the soul is left in darkness, sin will be committed. The guilty party is not he who has sinned but he who created the darkness in the first place. sin society Victor Hugo
56f70f1 The sins of women and children, domestic servants and the weak, the poor and the ignorant, are the sins of the husbands and fathers, the masters, the strong and the rich and the educated. society Victor Hugo
6efebbc I said I didn't think it would be a collectivist state so much as a wilderness in which most people lived hand to mouth, and the rich would live like princes - better than the rich had ever lived, except that their lives would constantly be in danger from the hungry predatory poor. All the technology would serve the rich, but they would need it for their own protection and to assure their continued prosperity. class eighties england poor rich society technology Paul Theroux
c97c9f2 It is impossible to examine questions we refuse to ask. society Chuck Klosterman
786a098 To wipe out abuse is not enough; you have to change people's whole outlook. The mill is no longer standing, but the wind's still there, blowing away. society Victor Hugo
036e2f0 She had a strong, if erroneous, conviction of her own futility, and wished she had never come out of her backwater, where nothing happened except art and literature, and where no one ever got married or succeeded in remaining engaged. futility howards-end insecure out-of-place self-doubt society E.M. Forster
2bd3a97 "I don't know why--it's just that--I don't know--they're not kin."--Surprising word, I think to myself never used it before. Not of kin--sounds like hillbilly talk--not of a kind--same root--kindness, too--they can't have real kindness toward him, they're not his kin -- . That's exactly the feeling. Old word, so ancient it's almost drowned out. What a change through the centuries. Now anybody can be "kind." And everybody's supposed to be. Except that long ago it was something you were born into and couldn't help. Now it's just a faked-up attitude half the time, like teachers the first day of class. But what do they really know about kindness who are not kin." family kin kindness language society words Robert M. Pirsig
dc56287 For her life, like human life everywhere on the planet, had speeded up and speeded up until peace was rarely possible. Always there was movement, noise, inevitable and constant distraction [. ...] a madness had seized the earth. The madness of speed. As if to speed things up meant to actually go somewhere. And where, after all, was there to go? The present is all there ever is, no matter how much you lean forward or back. society speed stress Alice Walker
cbf47ca "Animals in pens have lots of time to develop theories", said the Cow, "I've heard more than one clever creature draw a connection between the rise of tiktokism and the erosion of traditional Animal labour. We weren't beasts of burden, but we were good reliable labourers. If we were made redundant in the workforce, it was only a matter of time before we'd be socially redundant too." political society technology theory Gregory Maguire
29e6d0e Perhaps jungle life, despite physical danger, was a relaxing one. Surely it was free of the petty grievances, the disparate values of society. It was simple, devoid of artifice and ulcer-burning pressures. life society Richard Matheson
5e3060f Understand something people, we will be hated by many in the name of Christ, ridiculed, mocked, stoned, slaughtered. We will be fined, jailed and killed for our love for Christ. You are supposed to see better with your eyes today, how close this is happening, just prepare your heart and soul to be braver than Peter and not deny Christ in the moment your life might be in jeopardy for Him and what you believe. Apostle Pauls says to live is Christ to die is gain. depression destiny dream dreams earning endtime family fantasy feminism fiction-food-for-though forgiveness freedom friends friendship future grief heart history humanity-humour imagination inspirational-quotes intelligence-is-attractive joy leadership life-and-living-life-philosophy life-quotes literature living loss love-quotes magic-spirit marriage meditation-men mind money motivation motivational motivational-quotes music nature pain passion-peace patience patience-johnson pentecost people politics positive-thinking power prayer psychology purpose quote quotes reading reality-relationship repentance sadness self-help self-improvement society soul spiritual strength time trust-war wisdom-quotes women words work world Patience Johnson
50c36cf Underneath an artist's preoccupations with sex, society, religion, etc. (all the staple abstractions that allow the forebrain to chatter) there is a soul tortured beyond endurance by the lack of tenderness in the world. religion sex society soul tenderness torture tortured-soul Lawrence Durrell
fa10d28 io, mio caro, non credo nell'amore universale. L'amore esiste in dosi modiche. Si possono amare forse cinque fra uomini e donne, dieci magari, talvolta financo quindici. E anche questo solo assai di rado. Ma se uno arriva e mi dice che ama tutto il Terzo mondo, o ama l'America Latina, o ama il sesso femminile, quello non e amore ma retorica. Pura demagogia. Slogan. Non siamo nati per amare piu di una manciata di persone. human-nature humanity jewish jews love-hurts love-quotes philosophical philosophy society Amos Oz
3090563 In the world I notice persons are nearly always stressed and have no time. Even Grandma often says that, but she and Steppa don't have jobs, so I don't know how persons with jobs do the jobs and all the living as well. In Room me and Ma had time for everything. I guess the time gets spread very thin like butter over all the world, the roads and houses and playgrounds and stores, so there's only a little smear of time on each place, then everyone has to hurry on to the next bit. Also everywhere I'm looking at kids, adults mostly don't seem to like them, not even the parents do. They call the kids gorgeous and so cute, they make the kids do the things all over again so they can take a photo, but they don't want to actually play with them, they'd rather drink coffee talking to other adults. Sometimes there's a small kid crying and the Ma of it doesn't even hear. society truth-of-life Emma Donoghue
09284d2 They will not disappoint you, and you will look upon them more charitably. Men seek but one thing in life--their pleasure pleasure society W. Somerset Maugham
5a09e23 A person who is worth nothing must introduce you to a person worth next-to-nothing, and that person to another, and so on and so forth until finally you can step across the threshold, almost one of the family. insight society Michel Faber
550602e If I'm all alone, then the standard for sanity is up to me entirely. morality sanity self-esteem society solitude Susan Wiggs
651100f It isn't really possible for men to understand how much the world doesn't want women to be complete people. The most important thing a woman can be, in our society--more important, even, than honest or decent--is identifiable. Even when Libby's evil--perhaps most of all when she's evil--she's easy to categorize, to stick to a board with a pin like some scientific specimen. Those men in Stillwater are terrified of her because being terrified lets them know who she is--it keeps them safe. Imagine how much harder it would be to say, yes, she's a woman capable of terrible anger and violence, but she's also someone who's tried desperately to be a nurturer, to be a good and constructive human being. If you accept all that, if you allow that inside she's not just one or the other, but both, what does that say about all the other women in town? How will you ever be able to tell what's actually going on in their hearts--and heads? Life in the simple village would suddenly become immensely complicated. And so, to keep that from happening, they separate things. The normal, ordinary woman is defined as nurturing and loving, docile and compliant. Any female who defies that categorization must be so completely evil that she's got to be feared, feared even more than the average criminal--she's got to be invested with the powers of the Devil himself. A witch, they probably would have called her in the old days. Because she's not just breaking the law, she's defying the order of things. society women Caleb Carr
ef847aa And I'm probably wrong. Maybe not completely, but partially. And maybe not today, but eventually. society Chuck Klosterman
6ecb9f8 Statistically it was not greatly different than it had been for previous generations, but anecdotally it had become so prominent that every problem was noticed and remarked. The cognitive error called ease of representation thrust them into a space where every problem they witnessed convinced them they were in an unprecedented colapse. They were getting depressed. pessimism science science-fiction society Kim Stanley Robinson
90c19ec I indulged in certain practices that our society regards as shameful. And I got sick. It wasn't the practices, I don't think, it was the feeling that the great, deadly, pointing forefinger of society was pointing at me -- and the great voice of millions chanting, 'Shame. Shame. Shame.' It's society's way of dealing with someone different. shame society Ken Kesey
cb2839b "This ambivalence about the value of cooking raises an interesting question: Has our culture devalued food-work because it is unfulfilling by it's very nature or because it has traditionally been "women's work"?" feminism food society women Michael Pollan
fbd32b3 The practical reality is that any present-tense version of the world is unstable. What we currently consider to be true--both objectively and subjectively--is habitually provisional. society Chuck Klosterman
bf66ad5 And the quality all these reasonable failures share is an inability to accept that the statue quo is temporary. society Chuck Klosterman
e03dcf9 If the collective life which results from our individual money-making is not richer, more interesting and more stimulating than that of countries where the individual effort is less intense, then it looks as if there were something wrong about our method. money-making society Edith Wharton
a1de62c "(Cont.. Pagina 46) O seu rosto negro, bonito, cintilava ali na minha frente. Fiquei boquiaberto, tentando pensar em alguma maneira de responder. Ficamos juntos, enlacados daquela maneira durante alguns segundos; entao o som da fabrica saltou num arranco, e alguma coisa comecou a puxa-la para tras, afastando-a de mim. Um cordao em algum lugar que eu nao via se havia prendido naquela saia vermelha florida e a puxava para tras. As unhas dela foram arranhando as minhas maos e, tao logo ela desfez o contato comigo, seu rosto saiu novamente de foco, tornou-se suave e escorregadio como chocolate derretendo-se atras daquela neblina de algodao que soprava. Ela riu e girou depressa, deixando que eu visse a perna amarela, quando a saia subiu. Lancou-me uma piscadela de olho por sobre o ombro enquanto corria para sua maquina, onde uma pilha de fibra deslizava da mesa para o chao; ela apanhou tudo e saiu correndo sem barulho pela fileira de maquinas para enfiar as fibra num funil de enchimento; depois, desapareceu no meu angulo de visao virando num canto. (Pagina 47) "Todos aqueles fusos bobinando e rodando, e lancadeiras saltando por todo lado, e carreteis fustigando o ar com fios, paredes caiadas e maquinas cinza-aco e mocas com saias floridas saltitando para a frente e para tras e a coisa toda tecida como uma tela, com linhas brancas corredicas que prendiam a fabrica, mantendo-a unida - aquilo tudo me marcou e de vez em quando alguma coisa na enfermaria o traz de volta a minha mente Sim. Isto e o que sei.. A enfermaria e uma fabrica da Liga. Serve para reparar os enganos cometidos nas vizinhancas, nas escolas e nas igrejas, isso e o que o hospital e. Quando um produto acaba, volta para a sociedade la fora - todo reparado e bom como se fosse novo, as vezes melhor do que se fosse novo, traz alegria ao coracao da Chefona; algo que entrou deformado, todo diferente, agora e um componente em funcionamento e bem-ajustado, um credito para todo esquema e uma maravilha para ser observado. Observe-o se esgueirando pela terra com um sorriso, encaixando-se em alguma vizinhancazinha, onde estao escavando valas agora mesmo, por toda a rua, para colocar encanamento para a agua da cidade. Ele esta contente com isso. Ele finalmente esta ajustado ao meio-ambiente..." mental-illness perspectiva ponto-de-vista prensas-sobre-a-vida rotina routine sociedade society vida Ken Kesey
181f1a5 Emigrate! As if a gentleman could abandon his own country! One could no more do that than one could roll up one's sleeves and go down into the muck. society Edith Wharton
3d01865 To kheirotero otan kaneis to kathekon sou einai oti ginesai prophanos akatallelos gia otidepote allo. Toulakhiston aute etan e apopse pou eikhan uiothetesei oi anthropoi tes genias tou. O saphes diakhorismos anamesa sto kalo kai to kako, to entimo kai to anentimo, to axioprepes kai to anaxioprepes eikhe aphesei polu ligo khoro gia to aproblepto. Uparkhoun stigmes pou e phantasia enos anthropou, eno upotassetai toso eukola se o,ti zei, orthonetai xaphnou pano apo to kathemerino tes epipedo kai exetazei ton makru strobilisto dromo tou pepromenou. O Artser apemeine ekei na anarotietai... life love society Edith Wharton
3cdf31d The world happens as it happens, but we construct what we remember and what we forget. And people will eventually do that to us, too. society Chuck Klosterman
3dce474 The way earlier societies seem obviously absurd and cruel gives a kind of horror at the forces that must be at work in our own, but suggests that any society must have dramatically satisfying and dangerous conventions; and people can put up with almost any political conditions, either because they are lazy or because they are ambitious. conventions cruelty society William Empson
f8a925d The crime rates would go right down, I think, if Americans stopped saying: 'Have a nice day,' to one another. At least it would stop me from contemplating violence; when people in shops & so on order me to have a nice day in this authoritarian way, I want to kill, kill, kill. When I mutter 'sod off' under my breath, they think it is a Russian Orthodox benediction. politeness society Susannah Clapp
a57fe55 And if something is only itself, it doesn't particularly matter. society Chuck Klosterman
2c16033 Up and down the lanes, the last unevacuated townspeople wake, groan, sigh. Spinsters, prostitutes, men over sixty. Procrastinators, collaborators, disbelievers, drunks. Nuns of every order. The poor. The stubborn. The blind. society Anthony Doerr
b673b32 It's difficult to cope with the infinite variety of the past, and so we apply filters and settle on a few famous names. society Chuck Klosterman
28d9593 Their walking relationship was unnatural, but they were too fearful to seat themselves at a restuarant to share a meal, for they knew that restaurants in our country are the principal target of the active and increasingly familiar morals committees that harass people of every nationality who live in Saudi Arabia. Such committees are composed of menancing men who unexpectedly surround and enter eating establishments, demanding identification of the restaurant patrons. If proof is not forthcoming that the men and women sharing a table are not husband and wife, brother or sister, or father and daughter, these frightened people will be arrested and escorted to a city gaol, with punishment freely given. The legal penalties vary according to the nationality of the 'criminal'. Muslim offenders can be flogged for their social misconduct, while non-Muslims are gaoled or deported. feminism muslim oppression relationships royal-family society women Jean Sasson
77e7a76 I did not realise that when money becomes the core value, then education drives towards utility or that the life or the mind will not be counted as good unless it produces measurable results. That public services will no longer be important. That an alternative life to getting and spending will become very difficult as cheap housing disappears. That when communities are destroyed only misery and intolerance are left. life money money-quotes society thatcherism Jeanette Winterson
2270e80 In the quarter century between 1979 and 2005, average after-tax income (adjusted for inflation) grew by $900 a year for the bottom fifth of American households, by $8,700 a year for the middle fifth, and by $745,000 a year for the top 1 percent of households. society Robert D. Putnam
a8a0ef5 Sometimes an event happens that is so great the world is never the same again after it. In the twentieth century one of the greatest of those events is World War I - fought against Germany from 1914 till 1918. Everyone is in it together. Upper classes and lower classes, women as well as men. This 'mixing' has never happened before and it will change the way the classes look at each other society war Terry Deary
41394a2 Auf diesem Platz hat schon mancher gedacht, hier ware der Ort fur ein tuchtiges Stuck Leben und Freude, hier musste etwas Lebendiges, Begluckendes wachsen konnen, hier mussten reife und gute Menschen ihre freudigen Gedanken denken und schone und heitere Werke schaffen. growth life nature place society Hermann Hesse
df900ed In light of this, my visits with Morrie felt like a cleansing rinse of human kindness. We talked about life and we talked about love. We talked about one of Morrie's favourite subjects, compassion and why our society had such a shortage of it. human kind life love shortage society talk visit Mitch Albom
499aff9 Then I brought up the obvious, that the physical vulnerabilities of a woman can be traced to that most important function of human accomplishments, the absorption of her strength in carrying, nursing and rearing children. I have always known that this one fact doomed females to a subordinate status in all societies. Instead of attaining honour for being producers of life, we are penalized! To my mind, this fact is the scandal of civilization! islamic muslim-women muslim-world religion society Jean Sasson
c00766e Al actuar y ser como eres ahora, estas determinando la forma de ser y actuar de los demas. society yourself James Redfield
6305b2f The slowness of change is always respectable and reasonable in the eyes of the ones who are only watching; it is a different matter for the ones who are in pain. society Jonathan Kozol
5ddc27f It is the comfortable people, by and large - those like the Reading Teacher - who make the decisions in our society. It is the people who those decisions are going to affect who are expected to stand quietly, and watch patiently, and wait. society Jonathan Kozol
245002f Minciunile sunt fascinante pentru ca ele demasca paradoxurile societatii noastre paradox society James Patterson
50ff9ae This is the typical fallacy on which all of CONSUMER AMERICA is based. Some piece of useless crap will make people like you. society Blake Nelson
183563a One problem with the division of labor in our complex economy is how it obscures the lines of connection, and therefore of responsibility, between our everyday acts and their real-world consequences. Specialization makes it easy to forget about the filth of the coal-fired power plant that is lighting this pristine computer screen, or the back-breaking labor it took to pick the strawberries for my cereal, or the misery of the hog that lived and died so I could enjoy my bacon. Specialization neatly hides our implication in all that is done on our behalf by unknown other specialists half a world away. food social-commentary society Michael Pollan
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