Famous Quotes

"Police in China can do whatever they want after 81 days in arbitrary detention you clearly realise that they don't have to obey their own laws. In a society like this there is no negotiation, no discussion, except to tell you that power can crush you any time they want - not only you, your whole family and all people like you."

Ai Weiwei on Society

More quotes about Society

• "You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty."

  Mahatma Gandhi on Society

• "An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life."

  Robert A. Heinlein on Society

• "It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society."

  Jiddu Krishnamurti on Society

• "A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both."

  Dwight D. Eisenhower on Society

• "There is more to life than increasing its speed."

  Mahatma Gandhi on Society

More quotes by Ai Weiwei

• "To work in architecture you are so much involved with society, with politics, with bureaucrats. It's a very complicated process to do large projects. You start to see the society, how it functions, how it works. Then you have a lot of criticism about how it works."

• "I see the Beijing National Stadium as an architectural project. I accepted Herzog and De Meuron's invitation to collaborate on the design, and our proposal won the competition. From beginning to end, I stayed with the project. I am committed to fostering relationships between a city and its architecture."

• "The 'Bird's Nest' National Stadium, which I helped to conceive, is designed to embody the Olympic spirit of 'fair competition.' It tells people that freedom is possible but needs fairness, courage and strength."

• "Everyone wants an iPhone, but it would be impossible to design an iPhone in China because it's not a product it's an understanding of human nature."

• "I see the Beijing National Stadium as an architectural project. I accepted Herzog and De Meuron's invitation to collaborate on the design, and our proposal won the competition. From beginning to end, I stayed with the project. I am committed to fostering relationships between a city and its architecture."