No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable.
Man is by nature a social animal.
Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob, and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe.
In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations, and epochs, it is the rule.
The happiness of society is the end of government.
Religion is the opium of the people.
The production of too many useful things results in too many useless people.
Social progress can be measured by the social position of the female sex.
A society that puts equality before freedom will get neither. A society that puts freedom before equality will get a high degree of both.
A society that chooses between capitalism and socialism does not choose between two social systems; it chooses between social cooperation and the disintegration of society.
The fundamental social phenomenon is the division of labor and its counterpart human cooperation.
The foundation of the world lies in the nation. The foundation of the nation lies in the family. The foundation of the family lies in the individual.
Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution.
Those who succeed in the race for wealth are by no means the best or the most intelligent.
Our mastery over the forces of nature has led to a rapid growth of population, and a vast accumulation of wealth; but these have brought with them such an amount of poverty and crime.
The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.
The free development of each is the condition for the free development of all.
From the first day to this, sheer greed was the driving spirit of civilization.
Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
Most people work just hard enough not to get fired and get paid just enough money not to quit.
How do you cause people to believe in an imagined order such as Christianity, democracy, or capitalism? First, you never admit that the order is imagined.
The real difference between us and chimpanzees is the mysterious glue that enables millions of humans to cooperate effectively.
Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.
