Francois Hollande Quotes

Earlier pluralist societies destroyed themselves because no one took care of the common good. They abounded in communities but could not sustain community, let alone create it.

There has to be a social commitment, a social consciousness that joins men together. On the basis of their coming together, they do not transgress against themselves and they do not transgress against others.

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

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

Democracy actually requires that the whole public be able to see common problems and address them and step outside of their own sort of narrow self-interest to do so.

The emphasis has been on rights, not responsibilities. When it comes to piecing together the fragments of broken lives, we have tended to place the entire burden on the state and its agencies.

People think of taxes as money just being robbed from you. They don't consider the benefits of paying taxes. The benefits that they get and also the benefit of just being a part of a large group of people: a town, or a city, or a country, or a society that allegedly should stand together and all try to help each other.

Look around, and you see everywhere the exertions and acts of individuals restricted, regulated, or promoted, on the principle of the common welfare.

Society is held together by trust.

We need government to do for the people what they cannot do for themselves.

The object of Socialism is not to render the individual capable of living on his personal resources. That is the theory of radical individualism. Its object is to create in him a greater and greater sense of his dependence upon the state, and, at the same time, to inculcate in him the conviction that he is a part of it and that he has a duty and responsibility toward the state; and that only in so far as he fulfills this duty can he benefit by the advantages of a complete personal and social life.

Modern society places an emphasis on individual responsibility, whereas Islam places an emphasis on collective responsibility and the family.

I think I'm basically a liberal Conservative - I believe in low tax, spirit of free enterprise, and in making sure that we as politicians create the framework for business to produce the dosh that we're going to need to pay for the poorest. And the longer I live, the more I think that we all have a duty to each other.

I don't see any reason why society can't function well when people come together in the common interest under our system. In fact that's what the Big Society is all about!

A community is a group of people who have come together, and they work and they live to try and improve the standard of living and quality of life - and I don't mean money.

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.

Everybody is supposed to be a part of their own community.

Who belongs to the community of the commonly protected?

A nation is formed by the willingness of each of us to share in the responsibility for upholding the common good.

All who think cannot but see there is a sanction like that of religion which binds us in partnership in the serious work of the world.

Democrats believe that government should reflect the sense of community that Americans demonstrated after Katrina - the sense of community that has defined and united America throughout its history.

The problem of how we finance the welfare state should not obscure a separate issue: if each person thinks he has an inalienable right to welfare, no matter what happens to the world, that's not equity, it's just creating a society where you can't ask anything of people.

No doubt, unity is something to be desired, to be striven for, but it cannot be willed by mere declarations.

Society is the union of men and not the men themselves.

A true community is not just about being geographically close to someone or part of the same social web network. It's about feeling connected and responsible for what happens. Humanity is our ultimate community, and everyone plays a crucial role.