"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."
-Ai Weiwei
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"If we all say the same thing, then I think the government has to listen. But because no one is saying it, I become singled out, even though what I'm saying is common sense. It's very essential values that we all have to protect. But in Chinese society, people are giving up on protecting these values.“
-Ai Weiwei
posted in Society
Other Quotes by Ai Weiwei
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"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."
-Ai Weiwei
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"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
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"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."
-Ai Weiwei
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"This nation is notorious for its ability to make or fake anything cheaply. 'Made-in-China' goods now fill homes around the world. But our giant country has a small problem. We can't manufacture the happiness of our people."
-Ai Weiwei
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"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."
-Ai Weiwei
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"Freedom in capitalist society always remains about the same as it was in ancient Greek republics: Freedom for slave owners."
-Vladimir Lenin
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"How can a society that exists on instant mashed potatoes, packaged cake mixes, frozen dinners, and instant cameras teach patience to its young?"
-Paul Sweeney
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"There would be no society if living together depended upon understanding each other."
-Eric Hoffer
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"Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we're being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I'm liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That's what's insane about it."
-John Lennon
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"Justice is itself the great standing policy of civil society and any eminent departure from it, under any circumstances, lies under the suspicion of being no policy at all."
-Edmund Burke
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"Civilized society is perpetually menaced with disintegration through this primary hostility of men towards one another."
-Sigmund Freud
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