Michel Foucault Quotes

The best critics of America are Americans.

If the civil society is not transparent, honest, and accountable, then you cannot be a champion of social justice.

It is our responsibility to explain to the public how an often unpredictable system of justice is one that serves a productive, civilized, but always evolving, society.

Measures must always in a progressive society be held superior to men, who are after all imperfect instruments, working for their fulfilment.

As a democratic society, Malawi has a moral obligation to ensure that each and every injustice, whether through acts of commission or omission, is met with deliberate and tangible action.

Individuals can resist injustice, but only a community can do justice.

But I do believe this - I believe that fundamentally, society is headed in the right direction or wants to head in the right direction, and I think judges have an obligation to try to help it head there.

I violated, apparently, an unspoken rule that we are supposed to take care of our own. Frankly, if that invites discomfort, I welcome it. I don't think there's enough discomfort in journalism, especially in Washington.

I am not blind to the shortcomings of our own people.

This is a nation that has lost the ability to be self-critical, and that makes a lie out of the freedoms.

I'm my own severest critic, and I realize when I make mistakes.

My opinions and principles are subjects of just criticism. I put myself before the public voluntarily.

The proper function of a government is to make it easy for the people to do good, and difficult for them to do evil.

We would be in trouble as a society if there wasn't a constant pressure to make reforms and to be just.

It is true that [the] present-day young are idealistic. But theirs is the easy idealism that condemns abuses and pushes aside any thought that would reveal the difficulties and complexities inherent in righting wrongs. They are not willing to do the hard work by which alone the world can be improved. Hearing what they say, and seeing what they do, one suspects that one of the main functions of the young’s idealism is finding good reasons for doing bad things.

I think it's important to hold a mirror up to society and yourself.

I'm read in the Caribbean with justice, with fairness. What I expect it to do is to encourage articulacy in the young.

We all live in the same house, we all must be part of the effort to hold down our little house. When you see something that is not right, not fair, not just... do something about it. Say something. Have the courage. Have the backbone. Get in the way. Walk with the wind. It's all going to work out.

I've worked for everything I've had, and I can't think of a better way of using it than standing up for what's right, and what's required to build a better society.

In general, I agree with Socrates that what democracies badly need is the examined life, and we need to think critically about ourselves.

We can't create change until we recognize and check our own actions.

I've always had this sense of justice - I get that from my mom, for sure. When you see stuff that's wrong, it's just wrong, man. You gotta point that out.

Our ultimate objective in learning about anything is to try to create and develop a more just society.

You can't expect the institution to learn, if it doesn't accept any sense of justice.

No country has ever closely scrutinized itself visually ... I know what we could make of it if people only thought we could dare look at ourselves.