Harry S. Truman Quotes

As individuals, people are inherently good. I have a somewhat more pessimistic view of people in groups. And I remain extremely concerned when I see what's happening in our country, which is in many ways the luckiest place in the world. We don't seem to be excited about making our country a better place for our kids.

There is but little virtue in the action of masses of men.

The general right of the whole decides what is good and what is evil

The crowd has a way of being right.

When it all boils down, it's about embracing each others' stories and maybe even finding that synergy to collaborate for the common good.

When people in stadiums do the Wave, it's the group-mind collective organism spontaneously organizing itself to express an emotion, pass time, and reflect the joy of seeing the rhythms of many as one, a visual rhyming or music in which everyone senses where the motion is going.

Ants are good citizens, they place group interests first.

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

Solidarity is the basis of my politics.

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

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.

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.

I believe in cooperating for the common good.

The history of American patriotism is figuring out ways that we can work together to move forward and knit together the common government.

When you're fund-raising for schools, then something's wrong. We seem to have lost some sort of sense of what the common good is, and if you don't have a sense of what the common good is, then at least give to what you think your specific goods are.

The great American tradition is one of pluralism, not exclusive secularism. The strength of our country is reflected in the contributions that we all make to the common good.

He who would dare to undertake to establish a nation would have to feel himself capable of altering, so to speak, human nature, to transform each individual, who by his very nature is a unique and perfect whole, into a mere part of a greater whole, from which this individual would in a sense receive his life and his being.

We too often prefer the individual thrill to collective responsibility.

Majorities without discipline are not majorities.

When men unite in large societies, they cannot each take an active part in what concerns the common good. They are obliged to delegate their individual powers and rights to act, in things relating to it, to several, or to one.

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.

Politics is concerned with herds rather than with individuals, and the passions which are important in politics are, therefore, those in which the various members of a given herd can feel alike.

Our Union cannot safely stand on the cold calculation of interest alone.

… men who are governed by self-interest will combine, whether white or black, and the generous and selfless will similarly unite

The collective comes before the individual.