One of the enduring problems with certain societies in the world - and this is certainly true of a lot of places in the Middle East - is that the capacity for self-governance and self-organizing just isn't there. It has to do with history.

The history of all previous societies has been the history of class struggles.

Terrorism takes us back to ages we thought were long gone if we allow it a free hand to corrupt democratic societies and destroy the basic rules of international life.

We have one of the few societies the only one I can think of right offhand where your health care is so tied to your job so that when an American company has to hire they have to think about health care.

The dual scourge of hunger and malnutrition will be truly vanquished not only when granaries are full but also when people's basic health needs are met and women are given their rightful role in societies.

In societies where mature workers are respected and where their wisdom is respected everybody benefits. Workers are more engaged and productive. Their health is better. They live longer.

Law is stable the societies we are speaking of are progressive. The greater or less happiness of a people depends on the degree of promptitude with which the gulf is narrowed.

Happiness is a real objective phenomenon scientifically verifiable. That means people and whole societies can now be measured over time and compared accurately with one another. Causes and cures for unhappiness can be quantified.

We are all atheists about most of the gods that societies have ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further.

I think there's a lot of work to be done with our societies. My biggest passions are the environment and health. And when I say 'health' I mean the secrets behind health and our food system.

In contrast fear societies are societies in which dissent is banned.

When we are unwilling to draw clear moral lines between free societies and fear societies when we are unwilling to call the former good and the latter evil we will not be able to advance the cause of peace because peace cannot be disconnected from freedom.

Human societies like human beings live by faith and die when faith dies.

Feudal societies don't create great cinema we have great theatre. The egalitarian societies create great cinema. The Americans the French. Because equality is sort of what the cinema deals with. It deals with stories which don't fall into 'Everybody in their place and who's who ' and all that. But the theatre's full of that.

Any serious shift towards more sustainable societies has to include gender equality.

I'm a latecomer to the environmental issue which for years seemed to me like an excuse for more government regulation. But I can see that in rich societies voters are paying less attention to economic issues and more to issues of the spirit including the environment.

Education enables people and societies to be what they can be.

Inclusive good-quality education is a foundation for dynamic and equitable societies.

All societies on the verge of death are masculine. A society can survive with only one man no society will survive a shortage of women.

Societies have always been shaped more by the nature of the media by which men communicate than by the content of the communication.

I think we have to face the reality that in a society where there is a legitimate threat of terrorism not being able to see one's face not being able to have some sense of communication in that way is for many societies a challenge.

Many individuals are doing what they can. But real success can only come if there is a change in our societies and in our economics and in our politics.

Societies need rules that make no sense for individuals. For example it makes no difference whether a single car drives on the left or on the right. But it makes all the difference when there are many cars!

Although my family - parents and sister - all work in the personnel management business their real passion is performing amateur operatic societies and so on.