A Quote by Jose Saramago

Society has to change, but the political powers we have at the moment are not enough to effect this change. The whole democratic system would have to be rethought.

Jose Saramago

Quote Topics

Change Democratic Effect Enough Moment Political Political Power Powers Society System Whole Would

Quote Author

Jose Saramago
Portuguese - Novelist
November 16, 1922 - June 18, 2010

Change or be changed, right? And what we mean by that is that climate change, if we don't change course, if we don't change our political and economic system, is going to change everything about our physical world.

Naomi Klein

If you have reservations about the system and want to change it, the democratic argument goes, do so within the system: put yourself forward as a candidate for political office, subject yourself to the scrutiny and the vote of fellow citizens. Democracy does not allow for politics outside the democratic system. In this sense, democracy is totalitarian.

J. M. Coetzee

People are dynamic. They change, and soon as there are enough of you, things change [for a whole society].

Wangari Maathai

We cannot change the political system, we cannot change the economic system, we cannot change the social system, until the people control the land, and then we take it out of the hands of that sick minority that chooses to pervert the meaning and the intention of humanity.

John Trudell

We have to change the kind of free trade deals we sign. We would have to change the absolutely central role of frenetic consumption in our culture. We would have to change the role of money in politics and our political system.

Naomi Klein

Political change and academic change and intellectual change are obviously crucial, but they don't necessarily change society. They can change a particular class and give everybody in that class great arguments, but that doesn't necessarily translate into the body of the culture.

Eve Ensler

When individuals change, society will change. And when society changes, the whole world will change. The welfare of the individual is bound up with the welfare of society as a whole.

Sathya Sai Baba

In this cultural moment, many of us are feeling inadequate to solve societal problems - fascism, racism, misogyny, homophobia, anti-Semitism, the list goes on - and are unsure of how individuals can affect real change. We don't know what effect we will have on the current political climate as we strive to effect change. All large historical decision draw from a sea of smaller decisions. One never knows what will make the difference in the long run.

Sabina Murray

I agree with O'Toole that custom and comfort are impediments to change. However, it is important to recognize that resistance to change is logical as well. The new "change masters" literature seems to take change as the norm. It isn't. Humans naturally see change as risky because it is risky, just as mutations in genes are mostly destructive. You would not want to go to work were everything changed every week! The phone system, the office assignments, who reports to who, and the whole set of job expectations.

Richard P. Rumelt

This is a very special Greek kind of socialist, all the social democratic parties in Europe are against this idea and I think that the dividing line today in the Greek political system is not the centre right or socialist, the real dividing line is between those parties and those political forces who really believe that Greece should stay in the Eurozone and make the efforts and change, and make the reforms and change the old and Mr Tsipras who is really resisting any kind of change in Greece.

Dora Bakoyannis

We are such docile creatures, normally, that it takes a virus to jolt us out of life's routine. A couple of days in a fever bed are, in a sense, health-giving; the change in body temperature, the change in pulse , and the change of scene have a restorative effect on the system equal to the hell they raise.

E. B. White

You change society by changing the wind. Change the wind, transform the debate, recast the discussion, alter the context in which political discussions are being made, and you will change the outcomes... You will be surprised at how fast the politicians adjust to the change in the wind.

Jim Wallis

I believe that artistic activities change people. You do effect change. I see architecture as a political, social and cultural act - that is its primary role.

Thom Mayne

My generation was going to change the direction America took. I was completely convinced that we would have a very different kind of society as a result of the protests that I was part of, and I think that's partially true. We obviously never really got to what many of my generation believed was possible, but the amount of change I've seen in my lifetime, both social change and political change, is staggering. I think my generation can take a little bit of credit for that by just opening up the conversation.

Susan Lyne

James Allen says 'We curse the effect and nourish the cause.' The guy puts sand in his shoes and he can hardly walk and you ask why would you do that? Why would we wish for it to change, hope for it to change, but all the while resisting change?