Top 100 Better Society Quotes
#1. I love people. When you're engaged with society and trying to make it a better society, you're an optimist.
George Takei
#2. If more people were actively engaged in advocating their positions I think we'd have a better society.
Jeb Bush
#3. Would we be a better society if we made marriage simply a private contract between two individuals, with no wider implications of kinship and family? I do not believe that we would.
John Sentamu
#4. Public policy in the twentieth century was about protecting and expanding the social compact, based on recognition that effective government at the federal level provides rules and services and safety measures that contribute to a better society.
Carl Bernstein
#5. You have a chance to move in far better society than the Joneses. Why worry about keeping up with the Joneses? Keep up with the Angels and you'll be far wiser and happier.
Fulton J. Sheen
#6. That is the hope that inspires Christians. We know that every effort to better society, especially when injustice and sin are so ingrained, is an effort that God blesses, that God wants, that God demands of us.
Oscar Romero
#7. RFK was a compelling figure because he was willing to challenge his audiences, and in turn connect with them in a unique way. Kennedy showed that our values define us and can inspire others to believe in the possibility of change and a better society.
Frances O'Grady
#8. The more people who have access to this vital information the better society will be.
Russell Brand
#9. Cynicism is the last refuge of those who don't want to do the work of creating a better society.
Robert Reich
#10. Man is certainly not creative, but his creativity should not be concerned with God. His creativity should be concerned with making a better world, a better society, better literature, better poetry, better paintings, better sculpture, better human beings.
Rajneesh
#11. In our community, we have a duty to strengthen the weakest among us to build a better society.
Bill Courtney
#12. I can't say that I've changed anybody's life, ever, and that's the real work of the world, if you want a better society.
Charles Kuralt
#13. We are all connected directly or indirectly.
We are all related closely or distantly.
We are all the offspring of the same family.
Better an individual and you better society.
Matshona Dhliwayo
#14. Don't ask me why I obsessively look to rock 'n' roll bands for some kind of model for a better society. I guess it's just that I glimpsed something beautiful in a flashbulb moment once, and perhaps mistaking it for prophecy have been seeking its fulfillment ever since.
Lester Bangs
#15. The more we can do to create a better society, that benefits more people, the better chance we have that our society will continue to grow and prosper.
Sanford I. Weill
#16. We believe in a particular order not because it is objectively true, but because believing in it enables us to cooperate effectively and forge a better society.
Yuval Noah Harari
#18. I am concerned about the whole man. I am concerned about what the people, using their government as an instrument and a tool, can do toward building the whole man, which will mean a better society and a better world.
Lyndon B. Johnson
#19. We no longer ask of a judicial ruling or a legislative act: is it good? Is it fair? Is it just? Is it right? Will it help bring about a better society or a better world? Those used to be the political questions, even if they invited no easy answers. We must learn once again to pose them.
Tony Judt
#20. A crucial contribution to the ideological argument ... it provides a vital part of the intellectual manifesto on which the battle for a better society can be fought
Roy Hattersley
#21. What, in the name of common-sense, had I to do with any better society than I had always lived in?
Nathaniel Hawthorne
#22. In the 'west' success is defined in purely material terms. He with the most money wins ... We should question, speak out and work for a better society with a whole different definition of what is deemed a successful artistic life.
Mark A. Brennan
#23. I'm an actor. I love acting and being able to use my love, my passion, to also contribute to making this a better society, a better democracy, and a better country.
George Takei
#24. Some people never contribute anything positive to society, they may even drain our resources, but most of us try to do something better, to give back.
Martin Yan
#25. By working to ensure we live in a society that prioritizes public safety, education, and innovation, entrepreneurship can thrive and create a better world for all of us to live in.
Ron Conway
#26. Our society is very, very good at developing certain types of skills and certain types of genius. We are fantastically good at identifying and developing athletic skills - better than we are, really, at almost anything else. We are quite good at developing and rewarding inventiveness.
Bill James
#27. Our society has got to evolve and create better ways of living.
Jeremy Jones
#28. In civilized society external advantages make us more respected. A man with a good coat upon his back meets with a better reception than he who has a bad one. You may analyze this and say, What is there in it? But that will avail you nothing, for it is a part of a general system.
Samuel Johnson
#29. This self-destructive behavior is becoming more and more mainstream in our society today, because we like to keep up with the Joneses. We don't consider the fact that the Joneses' kids are not going to the university, and they will not be able to retire in comfort. Life should be better than that.
Celso Cukierkorn
#30. Twenty times better to err on the person than suspicious of everyone.
Arkady Strugatsky
#31. In society every man is taken for what he gives himself out to be; but he must give himself out to be something. Better to be slightly disagreeable than altogether insignificant.
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
#32. We keep waiting for another Mahatma to make a difference in our society and nation. Well it is time to stop waiting. The mantra is "I change to change India". Which means each of us is the Mahatma and has the power to change this nation. Failing which we shall never change for the better.
Jeroninio Almeida
#33. Batman: You can't build a better world by killing criminals--it bankrupts your soul and society's by reinforcing the same cycle of violence.
Peter J. Tomasi
#34. I think that the best things that governments can do for productivity is not whack on new taxes and, if we can get institutions like schools and hospitals functioning better, well that's obviously good for the overall productiveness of our society.
Tony Abbott
#35. The mantra of the National Commercial Bank is 'building a better Jamaica.' If this bank is going to be everlastingly successful, it has to take on the ailments of this society.
Michael Lee-Chin
#36. Even the most miserable life is better than a sheltered existence in an organized society where everything is calculated and perfected.
Federico Fellini
#37. Successfully reframing the climate debate in the United States from one based on environmental values to one based on health values ... holds great promise to help American society better understand and appreciate the risks of climate change ...
George Mason
#38. How can you contribute towards building the Indian society and the Indian nation? No better way than to upgrade the quality of young people in school, particularly the schools which are run by the state government in the villages.
Azim Premji
#39. Those people who develop the ability to continuously acquire new and better forms of knowledge that they can apply to their work and to their lives will be the movers and shakers in our society for the indefinite future.
Brian Tracy
#40. Technological rationality reveals its political character as it becomes the great vehicle of better domination, creating a truely totalitarian universe in which society and nature, mind and body are kept in a state of permanent mobilization for the defense of this universe.
Herbert Marcuse
#41. There is a real diversity of talent and background on the A list so as to better reflect our society in all walks. There are people who have been candidates before, Councillors, Doctors, business leaders, charity campaigners.
Adam Rickitt
#42. The time has come, that man should change his ideas to respect the woman and woman should her to trust the man. Now social interactions need a better way to grow up.
M.H. Rakib
#43. We must continue working for a better world. I want my grandchildren to live in a society with a spirit of independence, a society that puts people before profits and looks after the environment.
Joan Coxsedge
#44. Taxation has its limitations as a method of achieving better economic distribution since for this purpose it is essentially remedial. We must also take a positive approach by finding new ways to spread ownership of future capital growth more broadly in our society.
John D. Rockefeller
#45. Just as Wall Street needs to break the hold of the bonus culture, which drives risk-taking that is rational for individuals but damaging to the financial system, so science must break the tyranny of the luxury journals. The result will be better research that better serves science and society.
Randy Schekman
#46. Much better stay in company!
To love you must have someone else,
Giving requires a legatee,
Good neighbours need whole parishfuls
Of folk to do it on - in short,
Our virtues are all social; if,
Deprived of solitude, you chafe,
It's clear you're not the virtuous sort.
Philip Larkin
#47. Private enterprise manages better all that to which it is equal. Anarchism declares that private enterprise, whether individual or cooperative, is equal to all the undertakings of society.
Voltairine De Cleyre
#48. In an industry with highly sequential innovation, it may be better for society to scrap patents altogether than try to tighten them.
Eric Maskin
#49. After getting myself relatively educated in the area of national transformation, I have come to discover that it makes better sense to look at what I could do to fix the problems of the society rather than blaming others for what is wrong in the country.
Sunday Adelaja
#50. No matter how important we all think we are as individuals, when it comes down to it, we're not that important. At times we better recognize that. That life goes on, thank goodness. That we better recognize our role in society.
Henry Kaufman
#51. 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; the best means to grow better is to be the worst there.
Francis Quarles
#52. The inevitability of abortion. But I refuse to accept the amoral consequences that are even far worse than that, which is harvesting them because we decided that as an adult society, we can use children to make our lives better, if you seek the reverse.
Greg Gutfeld
#53. Two people pass each other. As one looks upon the other's skin color, the other is looking back at their appearance. Both justifying, how better and righteous they are, in their own insecurities.
Anthony Liccione
#54. I think we would do much better as a whole if we focused more compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience than on how all the non-Christians are ruining society with their bad behavior and politics.
Kelly Minter
#55. It is better to pay court to a queen ... than to worship, as we too often do, some unworthy person whose wealth is his sole passport into society. I believe that a habit of respect is good for the human race.
M. E. W. Sherwood
#56. Citizenship in the 21st century requires more than paying your taxes and voting and occasionally running for office. That even if you're never in political office, you have political responsibilities. You can make your society stronger and better.
William J. Clinton
#57. You inquire after my health - it is better; but while I remain cut off from all hope, and doomed to solitude, or the society of those who never did and never will like me, how can I be cheerful and well?
Emily Bronte
#58. Better rooms better furniture, better objects d'art can only be created for a society interested in living - not existing.
Van Day Truex
#59. The smarter the journalists are, the better off society is. For to a degree, people read the press to inform themselves - and the better the teacher, the better the student body.
Warren Buffett
#60. Ironing boards are a classic example of something I find horrible about modern society: the excitementation, for want of a better word, of mundane things. Funny ironing board covers - I hate them.
Daniel Radcliffe
#61. I can't think of anything outside of having the gift yourself and creating yourself. I can't think of the next better thing to do than being able to put it back. Creative expression, I think, is vital to the success of any society ... A society without art will die.
Robert Redford
#62. Gilles Deleuze believed that every society needed a madman so we could feel better about ourselves. I do my best to fill that role.
George Singleton
#63. A more miserable life is better...believe me..than an existence protected by an organized society...where everything is calculated....where everything is perfect...
Frederico Fellini
#64. Empowerment is not about doing the same thing the same way in the same environment. It's about building the man and the woman and doing so with a view to creating better citizens and, by extension, better patriots in this society of ours.
Anthony Carmona
#65. Miracles may occur now and then, but for the most part ordinary pilgrims do God's work by preaching, caring for widows and orphans, challenging society's wrongs, and marshaling the faithful to show the world a better way to live.
Philip Yancey
#66. Education has the capability of making women better wives and mothers. Since families are the cornerstone of our society, we should strengthen women's abilities to teach their children because then we strengthen our society as a whole.
Jody Hedlund
#67. No institutions in modern society are better equipped to catalyze the necessary transition to a sustainable world than colleges and universities. They have access to the leaders of tomorrow and the leaders of today. What they do matters to the wider public.
David W. Orr
#68. It is nothing to celebrate that one is gay. Us heterosexuals have never celebrated our orientation. This cheering of gays is disruptive to our society. You can almost get the impression that it is better to be homosexual than heterosexual. I think this is very sad.
Carl I. Hagen
#69. Political activism is seductive because it seems to offer the possibility that one can improve society, make things better, without going through the personal ordeal of rearranging one's perceptions and transforming one's self.
Tom Robbins
#70. I recall asking the late eminent liberal historian Arthur Schlesinger, in a public forum in Los Angeles in the late 1970s, if he would say that America was, all things considered, a better, i.e., more moral, society than Soviet society. He said he would not.
Dennis Prager
#71. The sooner we all learn to make a decision between disapproval and censorship, the better off society will be ... Censorship cannot get at the real evil, and it is an evil in itself.
Granville Hicks
#72. Above all, translators must be native speakers. It's not because they speak the language better
I understand that sometimes a foreigner can learn a language better than native speakers. It has more to do with having an intimate knowledge of the society for which the book is being translated.
Sergei Lukyanenko
#73. In our society, to be obsessed with a vision about how to make a better automobile makes you a genius, but to be obsessed with a vision about the nature of reality makes you a nut.
Rodger Kamenetz
#74. Because we believe that our ethnic group, our society, our political party, our God, is better than your God, we kill each other.
Neale Donald Walsch
#75. The world is better without
them.
only the plants and the animals are
true comrades.
I drink to them and with
them.
Charles Bukowski
#76. My main concern is theater, and theater does not reflect or mirror society. It has been stingy and selfish, and it has to do better.
Anna Deavere Smith
#77. Cages everywhere I went. I was no better off in Saxonia, excepting only for the threat of vigorous, royal incest. Perhaps this also means that a princess is only a particularly desirable kind of monstrous creature--a lure that must be kept in a box at all times.
J.M. McDermott
#78. The rationalist imagines an imbecile-free society; the empiricist and imbecile-proof one, or even better, a rationalist-proof one.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
#79. Today we know that centralization and big bureaucracies have not, as promised, been the answer for promoting better opportunities for society.
Carlos Salinas De Gortari
#80. Society might have been better off without them, but we are supposed to look after the disadvantaged, and so we do it. But it doesn't help the society.
Gerry Harvey
#81. It's no secret that in our society, and many before, people are trend followers. For some reason, they feel better about themselves if they are dressed in the latest fashion or have the newest tech gadget.
Victoria Osteen
#82. Laws, religions, creeds, and systems of ethics, instead of making society better than its best unit, make it worse than its average unit, because they are never up to date.
George Bernard Shaw
#83. It seemed a part of her life, to step from the ancient to the modern, back and forth. She felt rather sorry for those who knew only one and not the other. It was better, she thought, to be able to select from the whole menu of human achievements than to be bound within one narrow range.
Orson Scott Card
#84. Were only trying to help, but you need to punish them. In a strange way, it will make them feel better. That's the way of society, you make a mistake, make restitution, learn from it, and move on. If there's no restitution, there's no learning. No consequences equals spoiled brats.
Katie Graykowski
#85. It's better to read first rate science fiction than second rate science
it's a lot more fun, and no more likely to be wrong, joked Lord Rees, Astronomer Royal and the former president of the Royal Society, at Wired 2013.
Martin J. Rees
#86. I know we live in a very sexist world, and a lot of boys do nothing except get in trouble, until one day they grow up and dominate every aspect of society. But girls, at least while they're still girls and perform well, seem to do everything better for a while. Seem to get the attention.
Meg Wolitzer
#87. He had understood long ago that the past was no better than the present. That was as plain as day. One had to try to escape, to wrestle free from every era, so as not to be devoured by it.
Lyudmila Ulitskaya
#88. It would be better not to know so many things than to know so many things that are not so.
Felix Okoye
#89. Talk with your daughters, Play with your sons. You need to be a better friend to them than anyone else. This society offers lots of evil friends. Before they make those kinds of friends, they need to find their best friend in you.
Nouman Ali Khan
#90. It seems to me that the Conservatives neither recognise the scale of the living standards crisis facing British families nor offer credible answers as to how the British economy or British society can be better in the future.
Douglas Alexander
#91. Any society which gives lip-service to the idea of equal opportunity is going to generate jealousy of others who are better off than you are, even if the thing that's in short supply can't be carved up and shared without destroying it.
John Brunner
#92. If you want to know how to solve society's problems, you start out with better public education.
Michael Bloomberg
#93. London theatre is different: it is a commercial theatre that brings the whole of society into one place. And Shakespeare grasped, better than anyone else, what it means to engage the entire audience.
Neil MacGregor
#94. Nobody does animation better than Disney; it's just that some of us wanted out of the box. Burton was one. I was another. We were the mutual complaint society.
Henry Selick
#95. Did we risk our lives to defend a just society, where guilt must be proven and not assumed? Or are we no better than the oppressive kings from whom our fathers fled?
Julie Berry
#96. You know, that's what's wrong with us on the public level. We fret about how to keep going the same old way when we should be casting around for another way that's better. Our society is hurtling in free fall toward heaven knows where,
John Brunner
#97. You can't transform a society for the better with violence, Ashala. Only with ideas.
Ambelin Kwaymullina
#98. Smoking's a way to let you down slowly from a ballgame. It also makes you use less of the resources around. It makes people better in the way they act towards society. Everybody's nicer. It's hard to be mean when you're stoned.
Bill Lee
#99. There are few better measures of the concern a society has for its individual members and its own well being than the way it handles criminals.
Ramsey Clark
#100. Walter Lippmann suggests that the United States behaves like a society which thinks it is complete with no more to accomplish; that, for better or worse, we are what we are, and the only danger to our comfort is external.
Gore Vidal
