Social Fabric Quotes

“People were lost and people were scared and their lynch ropes couldn't reach bankers or stockbrokers, so they looked for targets closer to home.”
― Dennis Lehane, Live by Night

“The fiery heat of love by now had cooled,
For from the time he kissed her hinder parts
He didn't give a tinker's curse for tarts;
His malady was cured by this endeavor
And he defied all paramours whatever.”
― Geoffrey Chaucer, The Miller's Prologue and Tale

“You and I are learning to see our trait as a neutral thing—useful in some situations, not in others—but our culture definitely does not see it, or any trait as neutral. The anthropologist Margaret Mead explained it well. Although a culture’s newborns will show a broad range of inherited temperaments, only a narrow band of these, a certain type, will be the ideal. The ideal personality is embodied, in Mead's words, in 'every thread of the social fabric—in the care of the young child, the games the children play, the songs the people sing, the political organization, the religious observance, the art and the philosophy.' Other traits are ignored, discouraged, or if all else fails, ridiculed.
What is the ideal in our culture? Movies, advertisements, the design of public spaces, all tell us we should be as tough as the Terminator, as stoic as Clint Eastwood, as outgoing as Goldie Hawn. We should be pleasantly stimulated by bright lights, noise, a gang of cheerful fellows hanging out in a bar. If we are feeling overwhelmed and sensitive, we can always take a painkiller.”
― Elaine N. Aron, The Highly Sensitive Person: How to Thrive When the World Overwhelms You

“The fiery heat of love by now had cooled, for from the time he kissed her hinder parts, he didn't give a tinker's curse for tarts, his malady was cured by his endeavor, and he defied all paramours whatever.”
― Geoffrey Chaucer, The Miller's Prologue and Tale

“If colleges are going to justify themselves, they are going to have to thrive at those things that require physical proximity. That includes moral and spiritual development. Very few of us cultivate our souls as hermits. We do it through small groups and relationships and in social contexts.”
― David Brooks

“People idolise those who are bad, know they are bad, and say to others not to low them … And conversely, we tend to ignore those who are good, know they are good, and say to others to follow them. This creates a complex social divide. .”
― Sandeep Sahajpal, The Twelfth Preamble: To all the authors to be!

“The function of small corner shops in maintaining cities as viable social institutions does not appear in the Washington consensus. The possibility that corner shops may do better at safeguarding social cohesion than mass imprisonment is considered outlandish – if it is considered at all.”
― John Gray