Civilization Quotes by John Ralston Saul

Of course, corporations and governments have a right to something for their money. They pay the wages. But they don't have the ethical right…

— John Ralston Saul

Some people don't like the 'comeback' because that suggests they went somewhere, which they didn't. That isn't what I mean. In my mind, people…

— John Ralston Saul

In the humanist ideal, the mainstream is where interesting debate, the generating of new ideas and creativity take place. In rational society this mainstream…

— John Ralston Saul

There's two ways of dealing with fears of mortality. One of them is to hide, so every day you wear the same suit and…

— John Ralston Saul

A foreigner is an individual who is considered either comic or sinister. When the victim of a disaster - preferably natural but sometimes political…

— John Ralston Saul

Rights are a protection from society. But only by fulfilling their obligations to society can the individual give meaning to that protection. (V -…

— John Ralston Saul

All the lessons of psychiatry, psychology, social work, indeed culture, have taught us over the last hundred years that it is the acceptance of…

— John Ralston Saul

The neo-conservatives, who are closely linked to the neo-corporatists, are rather different. They claim to be conservatives, when everything they stand for is a…

— John Ralston Saul

Armaments; extremely useful for fighting wars, a deadweight in any civil economy.

— John Ralston Saul

In the European tradition, rivers are seen as divisions between peoples. But in the Aboriginal tradition, rivers are seen as the glue, the highway,…

— John Ralston Saul

“Basic technical training is, of course, useful. But to treat it as anything more than that is to lock students into technology that will…

— John Ralston Saul

Bankers - pillars of society who are going to hell if there is a God and He has been accurately quoted.

— John Ralston Saul

If allowed to run free of the social system, capitalism will attempt to corrupt and undermine democracy, which is after all not a natural…

— John Ralston Saul

For about 125 years, give or take, the Canadian government has acted extremely badly - even in a way which should be called evil…

— John Ralston Saul

Ten geographers who think the world is flat will tend to reinforce each other's errors ... Only a sailor can set them straight.

— John Ralston Saul