Societal Dependence Quotes

If we could survive without a wife, citizens of Rome, all of us would do without that nuisance; but since nature has so decreed that we cannot manage comfortably with them, nor live in any way without them, we must plan for our lasting preservation rather than for our temporary pleasure.

We have killed off nature, that world entirely independent of us which was here before we arrived and which encircled and supported our human society

Take me as an example. I happen to have a talent for allocating capital. But my ability to use that talent is completely dependent on the society I was born into. If I'd been born into a tribe of hunters, this talent of mine would be pretty worthless. I can't run very fast. I'm not particularly strong. I'd probably end up as some wild animal's dinner.

The very existence of society depends on the fact that every member of it tacitly admits he is not the exclusive possessor of himself, and that he admits the claim of the polity of which he forms a part, to act, to some extent, as his master.

No matter how exotic human civilization becomes, no matter the developments of life and society nor the complexity of the machine/human interface, there always come interludes of lonely power when the course of humankind, the very future of humankind, depends upon the relatively simple actions of single individual.

We wring our hands over the miscarriages of technology and take its benefactions for granted

Many of our troubles are due to the fact that our people turn to politicians for everything.

You don't realize how much you use your credit card not even to buy things. It's a card you get so you can navigate society.

There's no way we could take cars off the planet and not have our society fall apart. So they're a necessary evil, in that sense.