Due to complexity of conceptualization and operationalization, “social capital” does not have a single definition. How can it? Just in consideration of our ideological differences, one can imagine thousands of context-specific possibilities. Even sociologists, specialists in the field of human behavior, frequently disagree on the definition of “social capital”. We can safely say, however, that social capital refers to networks of relationships among people who live and work in a particular society, enabling that society to function effectively. It encompasses the shared values, norms, trust, and reciprocity that bind individuals together into groups and facilitate cooperation for mutual benefit.

Now, let’s consider the words of history’s great thinkers on the topic of social capital!

The Big List Of Quotes On Social Capital

The Big List Of Quotes On Social Capital is organized by the thinker’s year of birth.

1. Sun Tzu – born 6th century BCE

“If your opponent is of choleric temper, seek to irritate him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant. If he is taking his ease, give him no rest. If his forces are united, separate them.”
“When you engage in actual fighting, if victory is long in coming, then men’s weapons will grow dull and their ardor will be damped.”
“When you plunder a countryside, let the spoil be divided amongst your men; when you capture new territory, cut it up into allotments for the benefit of the soldiery.”
“… too many punishments betray a condition of dire distress.”
“If soldiers are punished before they have grown attached to you, they will not prove submissive; and, unless submissive, then will be practically useless. If, when the soldiers have become attached to you, punishments are not enforced, they will still be useless. Therefore soldiers must be treated in the first instance with humanity, but kept under control by means of iron discipline.”
“If a general shows confidence in his men but always insists on his order being obeyed, the gain will be mutual.”
“When the common soldiers are too strong and their officers too weak, the result is insubordination. When the officers are too strong and the common soldiers too weak, the result is collapse.”
“… when there are no fixed duties assigned to officers and men… the result is utter disorganization.”
“If you asked how to cope with a great house of the enemy in orderly array and on the point of marching to the attack, I should say: ‘Begin by seizing something which your opponent holds dear; then he will be amenable to your will’.”
“Throw your soldiers into positions whence there is no escape… If they face death, there is nothing they may not achieve.”
“… it is the soldier’s disposition to offer an obstinate resistance when surrounded, to fight hard when he cannot help himself, and to obey promptly when he has fallen into danger.”
“When the outlook is bright, bring it before their eyes; but tell them nothing when the situation is gloomy.”

2. Plato – born 428 BCE

“… and so, their country being their mother and also their nurse, they are bound to advise for her good, and to defend her against attacks, and her citizens they are to regard as children of the earth and their own brothers.”
“… true education, whatever that may be, will have the greatest tendency to civilize and humanize… and not only their education, but their habitations, and all that belongs to them, should be such as will brother impair their virtue as guardians, nor tempt them to prey upon the other citizens.”
“Do you observe that we were not far wrong in our guess that temperance was a sort of harmony?… because temperance is unlike courage and wisdom, each of which resides in a part only, the one making the State wise and the other valiant; not so in temperance, which extends to the whole, and runs through all the notes of the scale, and produces a harmony of the weaker and the stronger and the middle class.”
“What shall he profit, if his injustice be undetected and unpunished? He who is undetected only gets worse, whereas he who is detected and punished has the brutal part of his nature silenced and humanized.”
“… my counsel is that we hold fast ever to the heavenly way and follow after justice and virtue always…Thus shall we live dear to one another and to the gods…”

3. Aristotle – born 384 BCE

“… argue from men’s wishes and their professed opinions. For people do not wish the same things as they say they wish: they say what will look best, whereas they wish what appears to be to their interest… they are bound to introduce a paradox: for they will speak contrary either to their professed or to their hidden opinions.”
“… the requital of services… is characteristic of grace – we should serve in return one who has shown grace to us, and should another time take the initiative in showing it.”
“Most people seem, owing to ambition, to wish to be loved rather than to love; which is why most men love flattery; for the flatterer is a friend in an inferior position, or pretends to be such and to love more than he is loved; and being loved seems to be akin to being honoured, and this is what most people aim at.”
“… men journey together with a view to some particular advantage, and to provide something that they need…”
“… the good man in becoming a friend becomes a good to his friend.”
“Every form of friendship… involves association…”
“Among the unequal… there arises friendship based on utility.”
“… a virtuous wife is best honoured when she sees that her husband is faithful to her, and has no preference for another woman, but before all others loves and trusts her and holds her as his own. And so much the more will the woman seek to be what he accounts her, if she perceives that her husband’s affection for her is faithful and righteous, and she too will be faithful and righteous towards him… to a wife nothing is of more value, nothing more rightfully her own, than honoured and faithful partnership with her husband.”
“… and in his conversation with her, [the husband] should use only the words of a right-minded man, suggesting only such acts as are themselves lawful and honourable; treating her with much self-restraint and trust, and passing over any trivial or unintentional errors she has committed. And if through ignorance she has done wrong, he should advise her of it without threatening, in a courteous and modest manner. Indifference and harsh reproof he must alike avoid.”
“… between a free woman and her lawful spouse there should be a reverent and modest mingling of love and fear.”
“… a husband should… secure the agreement, loyalty, and devotion of his wife, so that whether he himself is present or not, there may be no difference in her attitude towards him, since she realizes that they are alike guardians of the common interests…”
“… if the husband learns first to master himself, he will… become his wife’s best guide in all the affairs of life…”
“Of the modes of persuasion furnished by the spoken word there are three kinds. The first kind depends on the personal character of the speaker; the second on putting the audience into a certain frame of mind; the third on the proof, or apparent proof, provided by the words of the speech itself… The man who is to be in command of them must, it is clear, be able to reason logically, to understand human characters and excellences, and to understand the emotions – that is, to know what they are, their nature, their causes and the way in which they are excited.”
“A good citizen is one who provides that state with useful friends and few and feeble foes, and who procures for her the greatest revenue without confiscating the property of s single private citizen, and who, while conducting himself righteously, exposes those who attempt any injury to the state… To act justly is to follow the common customs of the state, to obey the law, and to abide by one’s personal promises.”

4. Cicero – born 106 BCE

“For whence comes our sense of duty? From whom do we obtain the principles of religion? Whence comes the law of nations, or even that law of ours which is called ‘civil’? Whence justice, honour, fair-dealing? Whence decency, self-restraint, fear of disgrace, eagerness for praise and honour? Whence comes endurance amid toils and dangers? I say, from those men, who, when these things had been inculcated by a system of training, either confirmed them by custom or else enforced them by statutes.”
“… no one should be entirely neglected who shows any trace of virtue…”
“… we should always strive to secure a peace that shall not admit of guile.”
“The interests of society… and its common bonds will be best conserved, if kindness be shown to each individual in proportion to the closeness of his relationship. But it seems we must trace back to their ultimate sources the principles of fellowship and society that Nature has established among men. The first principle is that which is found in the connection subsisting between all the members of the human race; and that bond of connection is reason and speech, which by the processes of teaching and learning, of communicating, discussing, and reasoning associate men together and unite them in a sort of natural fraternity… This, then, is the most comprehensive bond that unites together men as men and all to all…”
“The bonds of common blood hold men fast through good-will and affection; for it means much to share in common the same family traditions, the same forms of domestic worship, and the same ancestral tombs. But of all the bonds of fellowship, there is none more noble, none more powerful than when good men of congenial character are joined in intimate friendship; for really, if we discover in another that moral goodness on which I dwell so much, it attracts us and makes us friends to the one in whose character it seems to dwell. And while every virtue attracts us and makes us love those who seem to possess it, still justice and generosity do so most of all. Nothing, moreover, is more conducive to love and intimacy than compatibility of character in good men; for when two people have the same ideals and the same tastes, it is a natural consequence that each loves the other as himself…”
“… strong bond of fellowship is effected by mutual interchange of kind services; and as long as these kindnesses are mutual and acceptable, those between whom they are interchanged are united by the ties of an enduring intimacy.”
“… diplomacy in the friendly settlement of controversies is more desirable than courage in settling them on the battlefield…”
“… courage (Fortitude), if unrestrained by the uniting bonds of society, would be but a sort of brutality and savagery. Hence it follows that the claims of human society and the bonds that unite men together take precedence of the pursuit of speculative knowledge.”
“And how could houses ever have been provided in the first place for the human race, to keep out the rigours of the cold and alleviate the discomforts of the heat; or how could the ravages of furious tempest or of earthquake or of time upon them afterward have been repaired, had not the bonds of social life taught men in such events to look to their fellow-men for help?”
“… we secure great advantages through the sympathetic co-operation of our fellow-men…”
“… man is the source of both the greatest help and the greatest harm to man.”
“… the co-operation of men… is secured through wisdom and virtue.”
“… of all motives, none is better adapted to secure influence and hold it fast than love; nothing is more foreign to that end than fear.”
“Good-will is won principally through kind services… the love of people generally is powerfully attracted by a man’s mere name and reputation for generosity, kindness, justice, honour, and all those virtues that belong to gentleness of character and affability of manner… we are… compelled by Nature herself to love those in whom we believe those virtues reside.”
“… the command of confidence can be secured… if people think us possessed of practical wisdom combined with a sense of justice.”

5. Marcus Aurelius – born 121

“We were born for cooperation, like feet, like hands, like eyelids, like the rows of upper and lower teeth. So to work in opposition to one another is against nature: and anger or rejection is opposition.”
“… each creature is made in the interest of another… the good of a rational creature is community… we are born for community.”
“The intelligence of the Whole is a social intelligence. Certainly it has made the lower for the sake of the higher, and set the higher in harmony with each other. You can see how it has subordinated some creatures, coordinated others, given each its proper place, and brought together the superior beings in unity of mind.”
“… rational beings are here to serve each other. So the main principle in man’s constitution is the social.”
“If you have ever seen a severed hand or foot, or a head cut off and lying some way away from the rest of the body – analogous to what someone does to himself, as far as he can, when he will not accept his lot and severs himself from society or does some unsocial act… you have made yourself the outcast from the unity of nature…”
“So either teach or tolerate.”

6. Niccolò Machiavelli – born 1469

“… it’s fear or hatred that makes men attack each other… Anyone who thinks that an important man will forget past grievances just because he’s received some new promotion must think again.”
“When people are treated well by someone they thought was hostile they respond with even greater loyalty.”
“A man will sooner forget the death of his father than the loss of his inheritance.”
“… it’s hard to conspire against a man who is well thought of.”
“… when there is no threat from outside, a ruler must take care that his subjects don’t start conspiring against him… one of the most powerful preventative measures against conspiracies is simply not being hated by a majority of the people.’
“Nothing wins a ruler respect like great military victories and a display of remarkable personal qualities.”
“… a winner doesn’t want half-hearted friends…”
“A ruler must… show that he admires achievements in others, giving work to men of ability and rewarding people who excel in this or that craft.”
“… the only way to guard against flattery is to have people understand that you don’t mind them telling you the truth. But when anyone and everyone can tell you the truth, you lose respect. So the sensible ruler must find a middle way, choosing intelligent men for ministers and giving them and only them the right to tell him the truth, and only on the issues he asks about, not in general… a ruler must always take advice, but only when he wants it, not when others want to give it to him.”
“… men will always be out to trick you unless you force them to be honest… a ruler isn’t smart because he’s getting proper advice; on the contrary, it’s his good sense that makes the right advice possible.”

7. Jean Bodin – born 1530

“A man of good disposition… turns away from unworthy companies and seeks the society of wise and virtuous men. When he has purged his soul of troubling passions and desires, he is free to give his attention to observing his fellows.”
“There is no commonwealth where there is no common interest…”
“A society or a community is rooted in mutual affection…”
“… faith is the sole foundation and prop of that justice on which all commonwealths, alliances, and associations of men whatsoever, is founded… faith is not to be kept with him who breaks it.”

8. Thomas Hobbes – born 1588

“… riches joined with liberality, is power; because it procureth friends, and servants: without liberality, not so: because in this case they defend not; but expose men to envy, as a prey.”
“To speak to another with consideration to appear before him with decency and humility, is to honour him… To hearken to a man’s counsel, or discourse of what kind soever, is to honour; as a sign we think him wise, or eloquent, or witty… To do those things to another, which he takes for signs of honour, or which the law or custom makes so, is to honour… To agree with in opinion, is to honour; as being a sign of approving his judgment, and wisdom… To imitate, is to honour… To honour those another honours, is to honour him; as a sign of approbation of his judgment…”
“The passions that incline men to peace, are fear of death; desire of such things as are necessary to commodious living; and a hope by their industry to obtain them.”
“And seeing every man is presumed to do all things in order to his own benefit, no man is a fit arbitrator in his own cause…”
“The final cause, end, or design of men (who naturally love liberty, and dominion over others) in the introduction of that restraint upon themselves, is the foresight of their own preservation, and of a more contented life thereby; that is to say, of getting themselves out from that miserable condition of war, which is necessarily consequent to the natural possessions of men, when there is no visible power to keep them in awe, and tie them by fear of punishment to the performance of their covenants… For the laws of nature (as justice, equity, modesty, mercy, and (in sum) doing to others, as we would be done to) of themselves, without the terror of some power, to cause them to be observed, are contrary to our natural passions… And covenants, without the sword, are but words…”

9. Blaise Pascal – born 1623

“Inequality must necessarily exist between men.”
“The pleasure of the great is the power to make people happy.”
“Time heals pain and quarrels, because we change.”
“By knowing each man’s ruling passion, we are sure of pleasing him. Nevertheless every man has fanciful ideas opposed to his own good, in the very idea he has of good. It is an idiosyncrasy that puts us out of tune.”
“We are not satisfied with the life we have in ourselves and in our own being: we want to lead an imaginary life in the minds of other people, and so we make an effort to impress. We constantly strive to embellish and preserve our imaginary being, and neglect the real one. And if we are calm, or generous, or loyal we are anxious to let it be known so that we can bind these virtues to our other being…”
“We put such a high value on men’s reason that, whatever of earth’s advantages he may have, he is unhappy if he does not also have a privileged position in peoples’ esteem… this desire… is the most indelible quality in the human heart.”
“How unjust and unreasonable the heart of mankind is, to resent the obligation to behave towards one person in a fashion that, in some ways, would be right to behave towards everyone!”
“… each degree of good fortune which takes us up in the world distances us further from the truth, because people are more afraid of offending those whose affection is more useful and whose dislike more dangerous.”
“… human life is nothing but a perpetual illusion; there is nothing but mutual deception and flattery… Human relationships are founded only on this mutual deception… Mankind is therefore nothing but disguise, lies, and hypocrisy, both as individuals and with regard to others. They therefore do not want to be told the truth.”

10. David Hume – born 1711

“Men always consider the sentiments of others in their judgment of themselves.”
“No quality of human nature is more remarkable, both in itself and in its consequences, than that propensity we have to sympathize with others, and to receive by communication their inclinations and sentiments, however different from, or even contrary to our own.”
“The praises of others never give us much pleasure, unless they concur with our own opinion, and extol us for those qualities, in which we chiefly excel… the pleasure, which we receive from praise, arises from a communication of sentiments…”
“Nothing has a greater tendency to give us an esteem for any person, than his power and riches; or a contempt, than his poverty and meanness…”
“In all creatures, that prey not upon others, and are not agitated with violent passions, there appears a remarkable desire of company, which associates them together, without any advantages, they can ever propose to reap from their union. This is still more conspicuous in man, as being the creature of the universe, who has the most ardent desire of society, and is fitted for it by the most advantages. We can form no wish, which has not a reference to society. A perfect solitude is, perhaps, the great punishment we can suffer.”
“In general we may remark, that the minds of men are mirrors to one another…”
“Men often act knowingly against their interest: For which reason the view of the greatest possible good does not always influence them.”
“‘Tis easy to observe, that the passions, both direct and indirect, are founded on pain and pleasure, and that in order to produce an affection of any kind, ‘tis only requisite to present some good or evil. Upon the removal of pain and pleasure there immediately follows a removal of love and hatred, pride and humility, desire and aversion, and of most of our reflective or secondary impressions.”
“There is nothing, which touches us more nearly than our reputation, and nothing on which our reputation more depends than our conduct, with relation to the property of others.”
“… every particular person’s pleasure and interest being different, ‘tis impossible men cou’d ever agree in their sentiment and judgments, unless they chose some common point of view…”
“… we may observe, that a genuine and hearty pride, or self-esteem, if well conceal’d and well founded, is essential to the character of a man of honour, and that there is no quality of the mind, which is more indispensably requisite to procure the esteem and approbation of mankind.”

11. Jean-Jacques Rousseau – born 1712

“… contrary to reason, happiness, and virtue; we… see leaders stirring up everything that can weaken an assembly of men by disuniting them; everything that can give society an air of apparent harmony and sow in it the seeds of real division; everything that can inspire mistrust and mutual hatred in the different orders through setting their rights and interests into opposition, and, consequently, fortifying the power that contains them all.”
“… savage man lives within himself; social man knows only how to live beyond himself in the opinion of others, and it is, so to speak, from their judgment alone that he derives the sentiment of his own existence.”
“… when citizens love their duty, and those entrusted with public authority sincerely apply themselves to fostering this love through their example and their efforts, all difficulties vanish, and administration becomes so easy that it can dispense with… all those grand ministers whose glory is inseparable from the misfortunes of the people… public moral habits supplant the genius of leaders; and the longer virtue reigns, the less need there is for talents. Ambition itself is better served by duty than by usurpation. Convinced that its leaders work only toward its happiness, the people spares them, through its deference, from working to strengthen their power…the authority the people accords to those it loves and by whom it is loved is a hundred times more absolute than all the tyranny of usurpers.”
“… every man is virtuous when his particular will is wholly in conformity with the general will, and we willingly want what is wanted by the people we love… the humanity concentrated among fellow citizens acquires new force within them through the habit of seeing each other and through the common interest which unites them.”
“Do we want peoples to be virtuous? If so, let us begin by making them love their homeland.”
“… once fundamental agreements are violated, it is no longer apparent what right or what interest could hold the people in the social union, unless it is restrained by force alone, which brings about the dissolution of the civil state.”
“… respect your fellow citizens, and you will make yourselves worthy of respect; respect liberty, and your power will increase daily; never exceed your rights, and before long they will be boundless.”
“The commitments which bind us to the social body are obligatory only because they are mutual, and their nature is such that in fulfilling them we cannot work for others without also working for ourselves.”
“Public enlightenment, then, results in the union of understanding and will within the social body, which gives rise to close cooperation among the parts, and finally, to the greatest strength of the whole.”
“Peace, unity, and equality are the enemies of political subtleties.”
“The more harmony reigns in the assemblies, that is, the closer opinions come to being unanimous, the more dominant, therefore, is the general will, but long debates, dissensions, and tumult proclaim the ascendancy of private interests and the decline of the state.”

12. Alexis de Tocqueville – born 1805

“It is not the use of power or the habit of obedience that depraves men; it is the use of a power that they consider as illegitimate and obedience to a power that they regard as usurped and oppressive.”
“… I imagine a society where all, seeing the law as their work, would love it and would submit to it without difficulty; where since the authority of the government is respected as necessary and not as divine, the love that is felt for the head of State would be not a passion, but a reasoned and calm sentiment. Since each person has rights and is assured of preserving his rights, a manly confidence and a kind of reciprocal condescension, as far from pride as from servility, would be established among all classes. Instructed in their true interests, the people would understand that, in order to take advantage of the good things of society, you must submit to its burdens.”
“If there is no enthusiasm and fervor of beliefs, enlightenment and experience will sometimes obtain great sacrifices from citizens; each man, equally weak, will feel an equal need for his fellows; and knowing that he can gain their support only on condition of lending them his help, he will discover without difficulty that for him particular interest merges with the general interest.”
“The bond of language is perhaps the strongest and most durable that can unite men.”
“All people who have been seen to form a confederation have had a certain number of common interests that serve as the intellectual bonds of the association. But beyond material interests, man still has ideas and sentiments. For a confederation to last for a long time, there must be no less homogeneity in the civilization than in the needs of the diverse peoples who constitute it.”
“… personal interest… offers itself as the only fixed point in the human heart…”
“… it is easy to see that no society is able to prosper without similar beliefs, or rather none can continue to exist in such a way; for, without common ideas, there is no common action, and, without common action, there are still men, but not a social body. So for society to exist, and, with even more reason, for this society to prosper, all the minds of the citizens must always be brought and held together by some principal ideas; and that cannot happen without each one of them coming at times to draw his opinions from the same source and consenting to receive a certain number of ready-made beliefs.”
“When citizens are forced to occupy themselves with public affairs, they are necessarily drawn away from the middle of their individual interests and are, from time to time, dragged away from looking at themselves. From the moment when common affairs are treated together, each man notices that he is not as independent of his fellows as he first imagined, and that, to gain their support, he must often lend them his help. When the public governs, there is no man who does not feel the value of the public’s regard and who does not seek to win it by gaining the esteem and affection of those among whom he must live. Several of the passions that chill and divide hearts are then forced to withdraw deep into the soul and hide there. Pride conceals itself; scorn dares not to show itself. Egoism is afraid of itself. [< You dread to offend and you love to serve. >]… It then happens that you think about your fellows out of ambition, and that often, in a way, you find it in your interest to forget yourself.”
“You draw a man out of himself with difficulty in order to interest him in the destiny of the entire State, because he poorly understands the influence that the destiny of the State can exercise on his fate… So it is by charging citizens with the administration of small affairs, much more than by giving them the government of great ones, that you interest them in the public good and make them see the need that they constantly have for each other in order to produce that good.”
“In politics, men unite for great enterprises, and the advantage that they gain from association in important affairs teaches them, in a practical way, the interest that they have in helping each other in the least affairs. A political association draws a multitude of individuals out of themselves at the same time; however separated they are naturally by age, mind, fortune, it brings them closer together and puts them in contact. They meet once and learn how to find each other always.”
“There is nothing, at first view, that seems less important than the external form of human action, and there is nothing to which men attach more value; they become accustomed to everything, except living in a society that does not have their manners.”
“If citizens continue to enclose themselves more and more narrowly within the circle of small domestic interests and to be agitated there without respite, you can fear that they will end by becoming as if impervious to these great and powerful public emotions that disturb peoples, but which develop and renew them.”

13. John Stuart Mill – born 1806

“A person may cause evil to others not only by his actions but by his inaction, and in either case he is justly accountable to them for the injury.”
“Mankind are greater gainers by suffering each other to live as seems good to themselves, than by compelling each to live as seems good to the rest.”
“The disposition of mankind… to impose their own opinions and inclinations as a rule of conduct on others, is so energetically supported by some of the best and by some of the worst feelings incident to human nature, that it is hardly ever kept under restraint by anything but want of power; and as the power is not declining, but growing, unless a strong barrier of moral conviction can be raised against the mischief, we must expect, in the present circumstance of the world, to see it increase.”
“In the case of any person whose judgment is really deserving of confidence, how has it become so? Because he has kept his mind open to criticism of his opinions and conduct. Because it has been his practice to listen to all that could be said against him; to profit by as much as of it as was just, and expound to himself, and upon occasion to others, the fallacy of what was fallacious.”
“… the oath is worthless, of a person who does not believe in a future state…”
“… social intolerance, kills no one, roots out no opinions, but induces men to disguise them, or to abstain from any active effort for their diffusion… A convenient plan for having peace in the intellectual world… But the price paid for this sort of intellectual pacification, is the sacrifice of the entire moral courage of the human mind.”
“… there is always hope when people are forced to listen to both sides; it is when they attend only to one that errors harden into prejudices, and truth itself ceases to have the effect of truth, by being exaggerated into falsehood.”
“Though society is not founded on a contract… every one who receives the protection of society owes a return for the benefit, and the fact of living in society renders it indispensable that each should be bound to observe a certain line of conduct towards the rest… Human beings owe it to each other to help to distinguish the better from the worse, and encouragement to choose the former and avoid the latter. They should be forever stimulating each other to increased exercise of their higher faculties, and increased direction of their feelings and aims towards wise instead of foolish, elevating instead of degrading…”
“The distinction between the loss of consideration which a person may rightly incur by defect of prudence or of personal dignity, and the reprobation which is due to him for an offence against the rights of others, is not a merely nominal distinction. It makes a vast difference both in our feelings and in our conduct towards him, whether he displeases us in things in which we think we have a right to control him, or in things in which we know that we have not.”
“No person is an entirely isolated being…”
“… trade is a social act. Whoever undertakes to sell any description of goods to the public, does what affects the interest of other persons, and of society in general… “

14. Émile Durkheim – born 1858

“Everybody knows that we like what resembles us, those who think and feel as we do. But the opposite phenomenon is no less frequently encountered… Dissimilarity, just like resemblance, can be a cause of mutual attraction.”
“We are… led to consider the division of labor in a new light… indeed, the economic services that it can render are insignificant compared with the moral effect that it produces, and its true function is to create between two or more people a feeling of solidarity. However this result is accomplished, it is this that gives rise to these associations of friends and sets its mark upon them.”
“… social solidarity is a wholly moral phenomenon…”
“The bond of social solidarity to which repressive law corresponds is one the breaking of which constitutes the crime. We use the term “crime” to designate any act which, regardless of degree, provokes against the perpetrator the characteristic reaction known as punishment.”
“… a social cohesion exists whose cause can be traced to a certain conformity of each individual consciousness to a common type, which is none other than the psychological type of society. Indeed under these conditions all members of the group are not only individually attracted to one another because they resemble one another, but also linked to what is the condition for the existence of this collective type, that is, to the society that they form by coming together. Not only do fellow citizens like one another, seeking one another out in preference to foreigners, but they love their country. They wish for it what they would wish for themselves; they care that it should be lasting and prosperous, because without it a whole area of their psychological life would fail to function smoothly.”
“The more varied the relationships on which that [common] consciousness makes its action felt, the more it also creates ties that bind the individual to the group…”
“Two consciousnesses exist within us: the one comprises only states that are personal to each one of us, characteristic of us as individuals, whilst the other comprises states that are common to the whole of society. The former represents only our individual personality, which it constitutes: the latter represents the collective type and consequently the society without which it would not exist. When it is an element of the latter determining our behavior, we do not act with an eye to our own personal interest, but are pursuing collective ends… This gives rise to a solidarity… which, deriving from resemblances, binds the individual directly to society.”
“Men need peace only in so far as they are already united by some bond of sociability.”
“… reciprocity is possible only where cooperation exists…”
“As soon as we have taken the first step toward cooperation, we are committed and the regulatory action of society exerts itself upon us.”
“Social life is derived from a dual source, the similarity of individual consciousness and the social division of labor. In the first case the individual is socialized because, lacking any individuality of his own, he is mixed up with his fellows in the same collective type. In the second case it is because, whilst his physiognomy and his activities are personal to him, distinguishing him from others, he depends upon them to the very extent that he is distinguished from them, and consequently upon the society that is the result of their combining together.”
“… cooperation itself… is a social fact, subject to social rules… “
“… moral life permeates all the relationships that go to make up cooperation, since it would not be possible if social sentiments, and consequently moral ones, did not preside over its elaboration.”
“Men go forward because they must. What determines the speed of their advance is the more or less strong pressure they exert upon one another, depending upon their number. This is not to signify that civilization serves no purpose, but it is not the services that it renders that cause it to progress. It develops because it cannot but develop… But whilst it is an effect of necessary causes, civilization can become an end, a desirable object – in short, an ideal… Society is not… the secondary condition for progress, but the determining factor.”
“If there is one rule of conduct whose moral character is undisputed, it is that which decrees that we should realize in ourselves the essential features of the collective type.”
“Law and morality represent the totality of bonds that bind us to one another and to society, shaping the mass of individuals into a cohesive aggregate. We may say that what is moral is everything that is a source of solidarity, everything that forces man to take account of other people, to regulate his actions by something other than the promptings of his own egoism, and the more numerous and strong these ties are, the more solid is the morality.”
“Cause all social life to vanish, and moral life would vanish at the same time, having no object to cling to.

15. Friedrich A. Hayek – born 1899

“…it is largely because civilization enables us constantly to profit from knowledge which we individually do not possess and because each individual’s use of his particular knowledge may serve to assist others unknown to him in achieving their ends that men as members of civilized society can pursue their individual ends so much more successfully than they could alone.”
“When people speak of a ‘social conscience’ as against mere ‘conscience’, they are presumably referring to an awareness of the particular effects of our actions on other people, to an endeavor to be guided in conduct not merely by traditional rules but by explicit consideration of the particular consequences of the action in question. They are in effect saying that our action should be guided by a full understanding of the functioning of the social process and that it should be our aim, through conscious assessment of the concrete facts of the situation, to produce a foreseeable result which they describe as the ‘social good’.”
“It is of the essence of a free society that a man’s value and remuneration depend not on capacity in the abstract but on success in turning it into concrete service which is useful to others who can reciprocate.”
“Life in society necessarily means that we are dependent for the satisfaction of most of our needs on the services of some of our fellows… The benefits and opportunities which our fellows offer to us will be available only if we satisfy their conditions. This is as true of social as of economic relations.”

16. Bertrand de Jouvenel – born 1903

“… men come together under the pressure of a purpose which each has and which is the same in each.”
“Authority is, we have seen, the creator of the social tie, and its position is consolidated by the benefits which spring from the social tie.”
“A society keeps in being only in so far as each man does not encroach on what belongs to another, keeps his sworn oath, acts contractually, and generally answers to another’s expectation. Disappointed expectations are the death of life in society.”
“Human actions are, it is clear, based on confidence in others… Our progress in and towards the human condition presupposes that we live within a circle of peace and friendship, in which not only do we not anticipate attacks but we expect to be succoured at need.”
“Awareness of a ‘we’ is aroused by real affections and is in the present indicative for persons known to us, it constrains our affections to the conditional future, or to the imperative, for unknown persons who are members of the ‘we’. The ‘we’ breeds obligations which are really feelings of linkage. Awareness in each ‘he’ of these obligations constitutes for each ‘me’ a powerful safeguard. It enables ‘me’ to have confidence in ‘him’. This confidence is the condition on which human activity can develop.”
“The development of our argument has brought us to seeing the common good as residing in the strength of the social tie, the warmth of the friendship felt by one citizen for another and the assurance that each has of predictability in another’s conduct – all of them conditions of the happiness which men can create for each other by life in society.”
“… the City must not become too large, for otherwise, when the number of citizens is too great for intimacy between them to be possible, the harmony will be less intense… the intensity of the common emotion is in inverse ratio to the size of the society.”
“… only transcendental ties of affection could hold the human race together in a world-wide society.”
“… in any large society the common good does not greatly interest more than quite a small part of its members.”

17. Robert Putnam – born 1941

“… the core idea of social capital theory is that social networks have value… social capital refers to connections among individuals – social networks and the norms of reciprocity and trustworthiness that arise from them.”
“The community as a whole will benefit by the cooperation of all its parts, while the individual will find in his associations the advantages of the help, the sympathy, and the fellowship of his neighbors.”
“If individual clout and companionship were all there were to social capital, we’d expect foresighted, self-interested individuals to invest the right amount of time and energy in creating or acquiring it. However, social capital also can have “externalities” that affect the wider community, so that not all the costs and benefits of social connections accrue to the person making the contact. Social capital can thus be simultaneously a “private good” and a “public good”.”
“Social connections are… important for the rules of conduct that they sustain… Networks of community engagement foster sturdy norms of reciprocity.”
“Sometimes… reciprocity is specific: I’ll do this for you if you do that for me. Even more valuable, however, is a norm of generalized reciprocity: I’ll do this for you without expecting anything specific back from you, in the confident expectation that someone else will do something for me down the road. The Golden Rule is one formulation of generalized reciprocity.”
“A society characterized by generalized reciprocity is more efficient than a distrustful society, for the same reason that money is more efficient than barter.”
“Frequent interaction among a diverse set of people tends to produce a norm of generalized reciprocity.”
“Civil engagement and social capital entail mutual obligation and responsibility for action.”
“When economic and political dealing is embedded in dense networks of social interaction, incentives for opportunism and malfeasance are reduced.”
“… the positive consequences of social capital [are] mutual support, cooperation, trust, institutional effectiveness…”
“Of all the dimensions along which forms of social capital vary, perhaps the most important is the distinction between bridging [inclusive and outward looking. Examples include civil rights movements, youth service groups, and ecumenical religious organizations] and bonding [exclusive, inward looking, and reinforcing exclusive identities and homogeneous groups. Examples include fraternal organizations, church-based women’s reading groups, and fashionable country clubs].”
“Bonding social capital is good for undergirding specific reciprocity and mobilizing solidarity… Bridging networks, by contrast, are better for linkage to external assets and for information diffusion… bridging social capital can generate broader identities and reciprocity, whereas bonding social capital bolsters our narrow selves.”
“Bonding social capital constitutes a kind of sociological superglue, whereas bridging social capital provides a sociological WD-40.”
“… the strongest predictor of formal community involvement [is] education…”
“The touchstone of social capital is the principle of generalized reciprocity.”
“Communication is a fundamental prerequisite for social and emotional connections.”
“Anonymity and the absence of social cues inhibit social control… The poverty of social cues in computer-mediated communication inhibits interpersonal collaboration and trust… the richer the medium of communication, the more sociable, personal, trusting, and friendly the encounter.”
“If entry and exit are too easy, commitment, trustworthiness, and reciprocity will not develop.”
“… social capital has many features that help people translate aspirations into realities. First, social capital allows citizens to resolve collective problems more easily… Second, social capital greases the wheels that allow communities to advance smoothly… A third way in which social capital improves our lot is by widening our awareness of the many ways in which our fates are linked. [Fourth,] Social capital also operates through psychological and biological processes to improve individuals’ lives.”
“Child development is powerfully shaped by social capital… social capital within families also powerfully affects your development.”
“… social connectedness boosts educational attainment.”
“In areas where social capital is lacking, the effects of poverty, adult unemployment, and family breakdown are magnified…”
“… social capital can help to mitigate the insidious effects of socioeconomic disadvantage.”
“Social capital affects not only what goes into politics, but also what comes out of it.”
“Creating (or re-creating) social capital is no simple task… To build bridging social capital requires that we transcend our social and political and professional identities to connect with people unlike ourselves. This is why team sports provide good venues for social-capital creation. Equally important and less exploited in this connection are the arts and cultural activities.”
“… social capital is often a valuable by-product of cultural activities whose main purpose is purely artistic.”
“Networks high in bonding social capital but weak in bridging social capital become susceptible to conspiracy theories and anti-democratic behavior.”

18. Francis Fukuyama – born 1952

“A thriving civil society depends on a people’s habits, customers, and ethics – attributes that can be shaped only indirectly through conscious political action and must otherwise be nourished through an increased awareness and respect for culture.”
“… the economy constitutes one of the most fundamental and dynamic arenas of human sociability. There is scarcely any form of economic activity, from running a dry-cleaning business to fabricating large-scale integrated circuits, that does not require the social collaboration of human beings. And while people work in organizations to satisfy their individual needs, the workplace also draws people out of their private lives and connects them to a wider social world. That connectedness is not just a means to the end of earning a paycheck but an important end of human life itself.”
“… ‘social capital’ [is] the ability of people to work together for common purposes in groups and organizations… a distinct portion of human capital has to do with people’s ability to associate with each other, that is critical not only to economic life but to virtually every other aspect of social existence as well. The ability to associate depends, in turn, on the degree to which communities share norms and values and are able to subordinate individual interests to those of larger groups.”
“Social capital is a capability that arises from the prevalence of trust in a society or in certain parts of it… Social capital differs from other forms of human capital insofar as it is usually created and transmitted through cultural mechanisms like religion, tradition, or historical habit.”
“Acquisition of social capital… requires habituation to the moral norms of a community and, in its context, the acquisition of virtues like loyalty, honesty, and dependability. The group, moreover, has to adopt common norms as a whole before trust can become generalized among its members. The proclivity for sociability is much harder to acquire than other forms of human capital, but because it is based on ethical habit, it is also harder to modify or destroy.”
“Social capital is not distributed uniformly among societies.”
“Social capital and the proclivity for spontaneous sociability have important economic consequences… there is a relationship between high-trust societies with plentiful social capital… Societies well supplied with social capital will be able to adopt new organizational forms more readily than those with less, as technology and markets change.”
“Social capital, the crucible of trust and critical to the health of an economy, rests on cultural roots.”
“Lack of spontaneous sociability becomes more pronounced the poorer one gets, as one would expect given the causal linkage between inability to cohere socially and poverty.”
“… communities of shared values, whose members are willing to subordinate their private interests for the sake of larger goals of the community as such, have become rarer. And it is these moral communities alone that can generate the kind of social trust that is critical to organizational efficiency.”
“Unlike other types of economic pathology, the causal relationship between social capital and economic performance is indirect and attenuated.”
“Social capital is critical to prosperity and to what has come to be called competitiveness, but its more important consequences may not be felt in the economy so much as in social and political life.”
“The ability to cooperate socially is dependent on prior habits, traditions, and norms, which themselves serve to structure the market… The concept of social capital makes clear why capitalism and democracy are so closely related. A healthy capitalist economy is one in which there will be sufficient social capital in the underlying society to permit businesses, corporations, networks, and the like to be self-organizing… That self-organizing proclivity is exactly what is necessary to make democratic political institutions work…”
“Social capital is like a ratchet that is more easily turned in one direction than another; it can be dissipated by the actions of governments much more readily than those governments can build it up again.”

Final Thoughts

This remarkable collection of quotes spanning over two millennia reveals that the concept of social capital—though only recently named—has been a central preoccupation of human thought since ancient times. From Sun Tzu’s strategic insights about loyalty and attachment to Putnam’s modern framework of bridging and bonding capital, these thinkers have grappled with the fundamental question of how human beings create and maintain the invisible bonds that make civilization possible. What emerges is a profound consensus: our ability to trust, cooperate, and build relationships is not merely useful for society—it is the very foundation upon which all human achievement rests.

The evolution of these ideas also reflects humanity’s changing circumstances. Early philosophers like Plato and Aristotle focused on virtue and justice as the bedrock of social cohesion, while Enlightenment thinkers like Hume and Rousseau explored how self-interest could be harmonized with collective good. The industrial age brought Durkheim’s insights about how division of labor creates new forms of solidarity, while our contemporary scholars like Putnam and Fukuyama warn of social capital’s erosion in modern life. Yet throughout these changes, certain truths persist: reciprocity breeds trust, shared values enable cooperation, and isolation diminishes both individual and collective flourishing.

Perhaps most striking is how these diverse voices converge on social capital’s dual nature—it is simultaneously deeply personal and irreducibly collective. As Pascal observed, we seek to live in the minds of others even as we neglect our true selves. This paradox illuminates why building social capital remains so challenging: it requires us to transcend narrow self-interest while recognizing that our individual well-being depends fundamentally on the health of our social connections. In an age of increasing polarization and digital isolation, these timeless insights remind us that our future prosperity—economic, political, and spiritual—hinges on our ability to weave and strengthen the delicate fabric of trust and mutual obligation that binds us together.

Thanks for reading!