Eckhart Tolle Quotes

A society that is all self-interest and no comradeship is not a society at all. But a society that is all comradeship and no self-interest is also not a society; it is a sect - or, on the largest scale, totalitarianism.

For traditional societies … the collective, the group, is more important than the individual, and empowering the individual is equated with dividing the society.

I think Americans generally are not used to working very hard, in terms of working for the collective. I think in our country we have taken individualism to its farthest reaches, possibly.

Even though we want huge individual egos, our collective ego is unbelievable.

President Obama is casting his lot in the middle of a debate as old as America itself: Are we rugged individualists pulling ourselves up by the bootstraps? Or are we a nation of community, all connected and counting on one another?

People are not considerate of others. They tend not to consider themselves as all living together, but see themselves only as individuals.

We too often prefer the individual thrill to collective responsibility.

Americans are so individualistic, they do not realize their individualism is a communally derived value.

Here in America, we don't let our differences tear us apart. Not here. Because we know that our greatness comes from when we appreciate each other's strengths, when we learn from each other, when we lean on each other, because in this country, it's never been each person for themselves. No, we're all in this together. We always have been.

The collective comes before the individual.

I don't really believe in the idea of the individual.

In the West, the basic economic and social unit is the individual; in Africa, it is the extended family or the collective.

I can't imagine a society with absolutely no solidarity. For me, it's a nightmare. And I don't want to live in a place like that.

I'm a big fan of community, and I think independence is over-rated.

We need to rediscover the idea of the common good and work together to build a home.

For a solitary animal egoism is a virtue that tends to preserve and improve the species: in any kind of community it becomes a destructive vice.

No man is an island. If you want to blame anybody for poisoning the world with that socialistic idea, blame John Donne.

Solidarity is the basis of my politics.

In the past goodness was always a collective experience. Then goodness became privatised.

For too long in this society, we have celebrated unrestrained individualism over common community.

All you now do is pursue your private objectives within society. Instead of us being a community, everybody is asked to seek their own personal ends. It's called competition. And competition is antagonism.

In our personal ambitions we are individualists. But in our seeking for economic and political progress as a nation, we all go up or else all go down as one people.

My real dream is that everybody will see their self-interest tied up with someone else, whether or not they see them, and see that as an opportunity for growing closer together as a culture and as a world.

The constitution is for us all to live together, a common life, we need each other.

Fundamentally, American society is composed of individuals who don't go out of their way to do each other favours.