William Makepeace Thackeray Quotes

Society will be obeyed; if you refuse obedience, you must take the consequences. Society has only one law, and that is custom. Even religion itself is socially powerful only just so far as it has custom on its side.

The whole system of society tells you what to do.

The English, more than any other people, not only act but feel according to rule.

Obedience, as it regards the social relations, the rules of society, and the laws of nature and nature's God, should commence at the cradle and end only at the tomb.

We arrange our lives-even the best and boldest men and women that exist, just as much as the most limited-with reference to what society conventionally rules and makes right.

We are half ruined by conformity, but we should be wholly ruined without it.

One wonders what would happen in a society in which there were no rules to break. Doubtless everyone would quickly die of boredom.

The problem in this world is not civil disobedience...th e problem in this world is civil obedience.

How far should one accept the rules of the society in which one lives? To put it another way: at what point does conformity become corruption? Only by answering such questions does the conscience truly define itself.

Silence is so often applauded and those who speak out are often called tasteless.

I wish I dared dispense with all costume. Naked children are so perfectly pure and lovely; but Mrs. Grundy would be furious - it would never do.

We live not according to reason, but according to fashion.

People like you to be something, preferably what they are.

We want the children to conform; we want to control their minds, to shape their conduct, their way of living, so that they will fit into the pattern of society, That is what every parent wants, is it not? And that is exactly what is happening, whether it be in America or in Europe, in Russia or in India. The pattern may vary slightly, but they all want the child to conform.

Conformity may not always reign in the prosperous bourgeois suburb, but it ultimately always governs.

The conventions of society are all in the interests of morality. If you're conventional, you'll be good, in a negative sense, of course.

The idea of a government is to create an ordered, willing work force where there's no trouble. I think idlers are generally seen as potentially dangerous because they're asking questions.

Society values cooperation over independence, obedience over individuality, and niceness above all else.

In no sense do I advocate evading or defying the law . . That would lead to anarchy.

When any practice has become the fixed rule of the society in which we live, it is always wise to adhere to that rule, unless it call upon us to do something that is actually wrong. One should not offend the prejudices of the world, even if one is quite sure that they are prejudices.

In my day, there were things that were done, and things that were not done, and there was even a way of doing things that were not done.

Nobody thanks a witty man for politeness when he puts himself on a par with a society in which it would not be polite to show one's wit.

Any law that takes hold of a mans daily life cannot prevail in a community, unless the vast majority of the community are actively in favor of it. The laws that are the most operative are the laws which protect life.

However fiercely opposed one may be to the present order, an old respect for the idea of order itself often prevents people from distinguishing between order and those who stand for order, and leads them in practice to respect individuals under the pretext of respecting order itself.