Top 100 Open Society Quotes
#1. In our open society, we are inclined to give to the less fortunate for the pure goodness of giving. We open our home to those who are alone on this holiday to spread some warmth into the life of another.
Jeff Miller
#2. But the truth of the matter is, we're an open society, we want to remain an open society, and there will continue to be vulnerability. That's why we have to meet the threats when they are not yet taking place on our territory and on our soil.
Condoleezza Rice
#3. I myself am Muslim and I stand on the side of an open society.
Bassam Tibi
#4. The main enemy of the open society, I believe, is no longer the communist but the capitalist threat.
George Soros
#5. An open society calls itself open to improvement. It is based on the recognition that people have divergent views and interests, and that nobody is in possession of the ultimate truth.
George Soros
#6. A free and open society is an ongoing conflict, interrupted periodically by compromises.
Saul Alinsky
#7. North American society could not have reached its state of high development and modernity had it not been an open society.
Mario Vargas-Llosa
#8. All of my grandparents came to the United States from Italy during the early years of the 20th century. I believe that my grandparents came here to take advantage of the opportunities furnished by a growing country with an open society.
Samuel Alito
#9. Libraries are the mainstays of democracy. The first thing dictators do when taking over a country is close all the libraries, because libraries are full of ideas and differences of opinion, all the things we say we want in a free and open society. So keep 'em, fund 'em, embrace and cherish 'em.
David Baldacci
#10. We have been talking with leaders: Change is coming; you can no longer have a closed regime with an open society - satellites, social media, the Internet - you have this kind, this kind of society moving forward, and you are running this closed regime; this is not sustainable. This cannot continue.
Ali Babacan
#11. We live in what's called an open society, which of course means they open our emails, open our phone records, and open our medical records.
Jay Leno
#12. The people currently in charge have forgotten the first principle of an open society, namely that we may be wrong and that there has to be free discussion. That it's possible to be opposed to the policies without being unpatriotic.
George Soros
#13. My foundations support people in the country who care about an open society. It's their work that I'm supporting. So it's not me doing it. But I can empower them. I can support them, and I can help them.
George Soros
#14. Religious freedom in an open society has the best prospects of flourishing to the extent that it expresses itself as freedom of religious inquiry.
Sidney Hook
#15. Two things form the bedrock of any open society - freedom of expression and rule of law. If you don't have those things, you don't have a free country.
Salman Rushdie
#16. In an open society, no idea can be above scrutiny, just as no people should be beneath dignity.
Maajid Nawaz
#17. 'The End of America' details the 10 steps that would-be dictators always take in seeking to close an open society; it argued that the Bush administration had been advancing each one.
Naomi Wolf
#18. Conflict is the essential core of a free and open society. If one were to project the democratic way of life in the form of a musical score, its major theme would be the harmony of dissonance.
Saul D. Alinsky
#19. A lot of America's success is because we're an open society and haven't brought dogma or religious influence into the American political process.
Jeff Hawkins
#20. We have to fight the terrorists as if there were no rules and preserve our open society as if there were no terrorists.
Thomas Friedman
#21. Before a group can enter the open society, it must first close ranks.
Stokely Carmichael
#22. Korea is an open society and we will make sure that there is no restriction on foreign investment in Korea.
Lee Myung-bak
#23. We have an open society. No one will come and take me away for saying what I am saying. But they don't have to, if they can control how many people hear it. And that's how they do it.
Jackson Browne
#24. Once a secret society establishes itself within an open society, there is no end to the hideous mistrust it must cause.
Rebecca West
#25. If you want an open society, you have to put up with the chaos.
J. Bowyer Bell
#26. We don't stop talking about how the world might be better just because we have no chance of making it to Prime Minister. We are all politicians. We are all artists. In an open society everything the mind and hands can achieve is our birthright. It is up to us to claim it.
Stephen Fry
#27. I feel that the Christian experience and the Jewish one have much to give each other. If this open society continues and there is no return to political anti-Semitism, then this encounter, deeper than any theology, may happen.
Lionel Blue
#28. But the disposition to disagree, to reject and to dissent - however irritating it may be when taken to extremes - is the very lifeblood of an open society. We need people who make a virtue of opposing mainstream opinion. A democracy of permanent consensus will not long remain a democracy.
Tony Judt
#29. My hope is that light, flexible architecture might bring about a new and open society.
Frei Otto
#30. The magic of America is that we're a free and open society with a mixed population. Part of our security is our freedom.
Madeleine Albright
#31. The disposition to disagree, to reject and to dissent - however irritating it may be when taken to extremes - is the very lifeblood of an open society. We need people who make a virtue of opposing mainstream opinion.
Tony Judt
#32. America still has the right stuff to thrive. We still have the most creative, diverse, innovative culture and open society - in a world where the ability to imagine and generate new ideas with speed and to implement them through global collaboration is the most important competitive advantage.
Thomas Friedman
#33. When I had made more money than I needed for myself and my family, I set up a foundation to promote the values and principles of a free and open society.
George Soros
#34. You have every cause for anxiety. we are on the threshold of a more searching, more honest, more open society. there are new times just around the corner
Laszlo Krasznahorkai
#35. The very word Secrecy is repugnant in a free and open society.
John F. Kennedy
#36. The open society, the unrestricted access to knowledge, the unplanned and uninhibited association of men for its furtherance-these are what may make a vast, complex, ever growing, ever changing, ever more specialized and expert technological world, nevertheless a world of human community.
J. Robert Oppenheimer
#37. While Financier George Soros was investing money in Kosovo's reconstruction, the George Soros Foundation for an Open Society had opened a branch office in Pristina establishing the Kosovo Foundation for an Open Society (KFOS) as part of the Soros' network of "non-profit foundations" in the Balkans.
Michel Chossudovsky
#38. We need to understand that an open society and free speech and press ... really are the best weapons against al Qaeda and extremism.
Elliott Abrams
#39. I give away something up to $500 million a year throughout the world promoting Open Society. My foundations support people in the country who care about an open society. It's their work that I'm supporting. So it's not me doing it.
George Soros
#40. Every marvel of our age arose out of the critical give and take of an open society. No other civilization ever managed to incorporate this crucial innovation, weaving it into daily life. And if you disagree with this ... say so!
David Brin
#41. An open society is a society which allows its members the greatest possible degree of freedom in pursuing their interests compatible with the interests of others.
George Soros
#42. Entrepreneurship requires flexibility and an open society, and there will always be people who succeed and people who follow. For those who lead, they have an obligation to create a better life for the people around them.
Daniel A. D'Aniello
#43. I chose America as my home because I value freedom and democracy, civil liberties and an open society.
George Soros
#44. The open society is one in which men have learned to be to some extent critical of taboos, and to base decisions on the authority of their own intelligence.
Karl Popper
#45. An open society is a healthy society; transparency is necessary to trust.
Lauren Oliver
#46. It takes an open minded individual to look beyond a disability, and see, that ability has so much more to offer,
than the limitations society tries to place upon them.
Robert M. Hensel
#47. The proper way to eat a fig, in society,
Is to split it in four, holding it by the stump,
And open it, so that it is a glittering, rosy, moist, honied, heavy-petalled four-petalled flower.
D.H. Lawrence
#48. We can build a society grounded on friendship and our common humanity - a society founded on tolerance. That is the only road open to us.
Nelson Mandela
#49. The first principle of a free society is an untrammeled flow of words in an open forum.
(Adlai E. Stevenson, 1900-1965, American Lawyer, Politician)
Adlai E. Stevenson II
#50. Now, 75 years [after To Kill a Mockingbird], in an abundant society where people have laptops, cell phones, iPods, and minds like empty rooms, I still plod along with books.
[Open Letter, O Magazine, July 2006]
Harper Lee
#51. Freedom is valued in a culture that wants to encourage dissent and to stimulate originality and independence. It belongs to a society which is open to change, and which esteems the agent of change, the individual, above its own peace of mind.
Jacob Bronowski
#52. The women's movement was always going to work in two parts. With one part, we'd break open the doors that were closed to women, and with the other part, we'd walk through, transforming society for men and women. Turns out it was a lot easier to open the doors.
Ellen Goodman
#53. At its core, a fair and just society is one where opportunity is open to all - not just those at the top.
Rupert Murdoch
#54. For however much the state may gain by not having to fund roads on its own, society would lose in aggregate if the open commons of transportation were lost.
Lawrence Lessig
#55. It's important to control yourself because life gets too complicated if you don't, but the impulse is often there for people. Some say society should be more open. That doesn't work either.
Woody Allen
#56. I can officially state that my government and myself believe that all over Europe we need to open a debate on the 'drug question' in order to create more coherent and human policies with better perspectives ... The policy of criminalizing consumers has failed, creating many problems to our society.
George Papandreou
#57. The protesters, in Jerusalem and in Tel Aviv, revealed an open and raw wound at the heart of Israeli society, the pain of a community crying out over a sense of discrimination, racism, and of being unanswered.
Reuven Rivlin
#58. The contemporary memoir is playing an important role in at least just bringing certain relationships out into the open in American society, and also it's a place where the novel of development, the novel of consciousness, has gone.
Marco Roth
#59. We should be tolerant, fair, open, and we should understand the rights that all people have in our society.
Rudy Giuliani
#60. Our task is not to fight old battles, but to show that there is a third way, a way of marrying together an open competitive society and successful economy with a just and decent society.
Tony Blair
#61. Intellectual property is an important legal and cultural issue. Society as a whole has complex issues to face here: private ownership vs. open source, and so on.
Tim Berners-Lee
#62. As a nation, we owe a great deal to the National Audubon Society, one of our most distinguished and important environmental organizations, and all those who work to protect America's open land and waterways.
Louis Bacon
#63. I only want to work with transparent ideas and accessible technologies that 'spotlight' the individual's role in society through creativity. I try to live an open-source life.
Chris Jordan
#64. The big challenge our society faces is that we live in an increasingly open world with increasingly closed communities. This is also due to the evolution of the Internet, where people only read things that won't challenge their beliefs.
Patrick Chappatte
#65. Films can't change the society; they can simply open the space for the discussion which can lead to social change and can start new forms of social activism.
Joshua Oppenheimer
#66. We live in a multi-cultural society far more open to international ideas. If you'd told me 20 years ago I'd drive through Bury and see someone sitting outside a cafe drinking a latte, I'd have laughed. In fact, I wouldn't have even known what a latte was.
Gary Neville
#67. Who do hats think they are? They contribute nothing to society, and don't even display basic manners. Has a hat ever held a door open for you? No. It hasn't.
Charlie Brooker
#68. Society imposes insults that must be borne, comforted by the knowledge that in this world there comes a time when the most humble of men, if he keeps his eyes open, can take his revenge on the most powerful. It
Mario Puzo
#69. We need to walk into the future, no matter how unnerving, with open eyes if society is to keep pace with technology.
Lawrence M. Krauss
#70. Misconceptions play a prominent role in my view of the world.
George Soros
#71. In Canada, women's rights are a vital part of our effort to build a society of real equality - not just for some, but for all Canadians. A society in which women no longer encounter discrimination nor are shut out from opportunities open to others.
Paul Martin
#72. That being said, even if we cannot achieve it, journalism that strives toward objectivity and fairness has an important place in our society. So, too, does being honest and open when presenting our own opinions, as you do so well in your book
Sheri Fink
#73. While an open network ensures the equal treatment of all data - something undoubtedly essential for a democratic networked society - it does not sweep away all the problems of the old-media model, failing to adequately address the commercialization and consolidation of the digital sphere.
Astra Taylor
#74. We end up with the contradictory picture of a society that appears to throw its doors wide open to women, but translates her every step towards success as having been damaging.
Margaret Mead
#75. Though gay lifestyles have certainly moved into the open, there's little evidence that society has become more open in its basic attitudes or that entertainers should feel cozy in emerging from the velvet underground.
Peter Bart
#76. Israel is a very young country, a cultural melting pot, and unlike the structured life of the Orthodox Jews, I grew up in a non-religious part of society where people were totally open to new experiences on many levels. I learned that when things are missing, you invent them.
Noma Bar
#77. We need cooperation based on trust and self-confidence to create an open, compassionate, harmonious society.
Dalai Lama
#78. Every object in the world can pass from a closed, silent existence to an oral state, open to appropriation by society, for there is no law, whether natural or not, which forbids talking about things
Roland Barthes
#79. Human trafficking is an open wound on the body of contemporary society, a scourge upon the body of Christ ... It is a crime against humanity.
Pope Francis
#80. The more democratic and open a society is, the more it's exposed to terrorism. The more a country is free, not governed by a police regime, the more it risks hijackings or massacres like the ones that took place for many years in Italy and Germany and other parts of Europe.
Oriana Fallaci
#81. A fully functional multiracial society cannot be achieved without a sense of history and open, honest dialogue.
Cornel West
#82. The defects of every government and constitution both as to principle and form, must, on a parity of reasoning, be as open to discussion as the defects of a law, and it is a duty which every man owes to society to point them out.
Thomas Paine
#83. Building sustainable cities - and a sustainable future - will need open dialogue among all branches of national, regional and local government. And it will need the engagement of all stakeholders - including the private sector and civil society, and especially the poor and marginalized.
Ban Ki-moon
#84. I wanted to make Joe less ignorant and common, that he might be worthier of my society and less open to Estella's reproach.
Charles Dickens
#85. White folks, no matter how well-meaning or open-minded, have no true idea what it's like to be black in America. That's not a slam against white people or an accusation of latent bigotry. But the fact is that we all live in an Anglo-dominated society.
John Ridley
#86. Few enjoyments are given from the open and liberal hand of nature; but by art, labor and industry we can extract them in great abundance. Hence, the ideas of property become necessary in all civil society.
David Hume
#87. All ideas in a truly free society should always be open for discussion.
Bryant McGill
#88. The human body and mind are tremendous forces that are continually amazing scientists and society. Therefore, we have no choice but to keep an open mind as to what the human being can achieve.
Evelyn Glennie
#90. Preparing citizens to act thoughtfully to create a more just, open, and creative society gives form, substance and meaning to often abstract concepts of freedom and democracy.
Gregory S. Prince Jr.
#91. Our society covers these problems with a veil. All I want is an open discussion
Aamir Khan
#92. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor decisions reflect, in my view, that our society has worked very hard to improve the workaday world, to open doors to workers confronted by powerful employers and for women facing harassment and stereotypes.
Joe Biden
#93. Libraries are what is best about us as a society: open, exciting, rich, informative, free, inclusive, engaging.
Susan Orlean
#94. As we have become more open minded (tolerant) in society we have become more closed hearted.
Peggy Noonan
#95. I think living my happy, open life and showing young gay kids you can be successful, you can have love in your life, you can be a contributing member of society and you can be respected - I think that's it.
Bryan Batt
#96. The society with lots of open disagreement and social conflict is the one surging with power in art, science, commerce, constructive social reform, and (most of all) religious revival; the hushed-up society where everyone is afraid to say what he thinks is on the brink of violence and collapse.
Greg Forster
#97. Jail is just another micro-society. It just happens that here, the problems are far more out in the open, we don't live with the facades of lies that democracy or capitalism creates for us.
Cecily McMillan
#98. There are no limits when you are surrounded by people who believe in you, or by people whose expectations are not set by the short-sighted attitudes of society, or by people who help to open doors of opportunity, not close them.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
#99. I am not alone in the conviction that real, lasting national security can best be obtained through complete transparency of government, business, and other facets of society, and this includes open access to all of the many available types of information.
Robert David Steele
#100. There's a radical change in the relationship with the human being and society. Art now is an open conversation with the society. Previously there was a necessity for a little bit of screaming and shouting just to get it into the conversation.
Lawrence Weiner
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