Sociologist Quotes

"Neither the life of an individual nor the history of a society can be understood without understanding both."

"Every revolution has its counterrevolution - that is a sign the revolution is for real."

"Prestige is the shadow of money and power."

"People with advantages are loath to believe that they just happen to be people with advantages."

"Power is not of a man. Wealth does not center in the person of the wealthy. Celebrity is not inherent in any personality. To be celebrated, to be wealthy, to have power requires access to major institutions."

"Not wishing to be disturbed over moral issues of the political economy, Americans cling to the notion that the government is a sort of automatic machine, regulated by the balancing of competing interests."

"America is a nation with no truly national city, no Paris, no Rome, no London, no city which is at once the social center, the political capital, and the financial hub."

"The principal cause of war is war itself."

"What ordinary men are directly aware of and what they try to do are bounded by the private orbits in which they live; their visions and their powers are limited."

"The nearest the modern general or admiral comes to a small-arms encounter of any sort is at a duck hunt in the company of corporation executives at the retreat of Continental Motors, Inc."

"In the world of the celebrity, the hierarchy of publicity has replaced the hierarchy of descent and even of great wealth."

"The closer a Negro got to the ballot box, the more he looked like a rapist."

"Education in the past has been too much inspiration and too little information."

"America faces a new race that has awakened."

"Educational institutes can no longer be prizes in church politics or furnish berths for failure in other walks of life."

"If women's rights are a problem for some modern Muslim men, it is neither because of the Quran nor the Prophet, nor the Islamic tradition, but simply because those rights conflict with the interests of a male elite."

"A woman can walk miles without making one single step forward. As a child born in a harem, I instinctively knew that to live is to open closed doors. To live is to look outside. To live is to step out. Life is trespassing."

"Sharia law does not exist in the Koran. It was created by man."

"Since all power from the seventh century on was only legitimated by religion, political forces and economic interests pushed for the fabrication of false traditions."

"The Taliban is the Muslim version of the Salem witch trials."

"The woman with dark hair, wide hips, and a few extra pounds has always been the essence of beauty in Morocco."

"One cannot understand what's happening to women in the Middle East if they don't realize that the mothers are a strong, progressive force. The mothers push the daughters to get out of the harem, to get the education, to achieve what they could not even dream of."

"If there is one thing that the women and men of the late 20th century who have an awareness and enjoyment of history can be sure of, it is that Islam was not sent from Heaven to foster egotism and mediocrity."

"Now that Arab women are pouring into the streets by the million, men discover with dismay that they, not women, were the captives of the harem dream."

"Women are builders of civil society. We are the ones who are going to build it. You know why? We have no choice. Either you shut up, and you are humiliated, or you do what I'm doing. You scream."

"Morocco is such a beautiful place. It's incredibly beautiful. And also it is captivating place because for a writer, you feel that you make impact. I mean, when I write something in the press, the day after in the fish market, people will be discussing it."

"There has been a terrible hemorrhage of educated women to the West where they can flourish. I understand, but it is terrible. We must stay home."

"You find in the Koran hundreds of verses to support women's rights, and perhaps four or five that do not."

"So much of Islam is Judeo-Christianity. It's impossible to divorce them. Islam is 600 years after Christ. Thousands of years after Judaism. Christ, Moses, Abraham - they are all in the Koran."

"There, they tell me to wear the veil. Here, they are telling me to put my hips in a little girl's skirt, and I am this lovely full woman. You've got this Ph.D. and you're worrying, 'Am I skinny enough?'"