Susan Sontag Quotes

Uniform ideas originating among entire peoples unknown to each other must have a common ground of truth.

Rational discussion is useful only when there is a significant base of shared assumptions.

I look for the consensus because the consensus drives the policy into new places.

Things that bind a community together are the things that nobody has to talk about because everyone agrees about them.

Crowding, rapid change and the breakdown of communities have been widely recognized as sources of social problems. But we do not believe they are enough to account for the extent of the problems that are seen today.

Our tribe unraveled like a coarse rope, frayed at either end as the old and new among us were taken.

Truth does not belong to an individual.

Of course [I'm a feminist]. And everyone I know is a feminist.

Our voting records are not necessarily the same, but, you know, we're all Texans, and at the end of the day, we try to help each other out.

Americans know that we have more in common than we do differences.

We're so bitterly divided these days, the appearance of a true 'other' might be the best chance of bringing us all together.

While we celebrate our diversity, what surprises me time and time again as I travel around the constituency is that we are far more united and have far more in common with each other than things that divide us.

People who get together, regardless of other structures, will find something in common. They are bound to. That was the Pete Seeger let's-all-sing theory.

In South Africa, we kind of like looking for things that unite people in big, big groups.

While people might talk about the divisions in this country, what I've seen is that across this country, we share so much in common, we share so many values, we want to take care of one another - that's what it means to be Canadian.

I've always had this belief that you want to write about universal truths.

There are many similarities between Sai Baba and me. He believed there is only one God, and so do I. He loved Sufi music; so do I.

I want to be a partner with business, labor, civic leaders, foundations, other churches so that we can work together... If I can talk to all of these people and have something in common, maybe I can get them to see that they also have something in common with each other when we come together.

America is a collection of people from different races, religions, and backgrounds - that is part of what makes us great. But a common language is what brings all of those people together to form a community.

Bound together by our beliefs, we are like minded individuals, sharing a common vision, pushing toward a world rid of color lines.

There is more than a verbal tie between the words common, community, and communication.

If we reach common ground, and can understand what everybody's going through, we can really affect change. And make sure that everyone is trated equally and has the same freedom.

I have always argued that we can't live by or be made to exist outside of mythology, and that every group and nation has, possibly unacknowledged to themselves, some myths by which they live. It remains important to revisit them, understand them and possibly retell them - or at least own up to them - and then it becomes possible to move something. If it's obscure or invisible to you, you can't budge those understandings.

Successful organizing is not built on self-interest but rather on dignity and a sense of purpose.

But all our differences hardly measure up to the values we all hold in common.