The extension of women's rights is the basic principle of all social progress.

Who is wiser: the man who plants flowers along life's way or the man who makes it bristle with thorns?

We must, then, apply the principle of Doubt to Civilization; we must doubt its necessity, its excellence, and its permanence.

Despots prefer the friendship of the dog, who, unjustly mistreated and debased, still loves and serves the man who wronged him.

Attractions are proportional to destinies.

...commerce, which is mistakenly classified among the productive forms of work, ought to be ranked first among the parasitical professions like those of monk, soldier, lawyer etc.

Civilization is a social plague on the planet, and vices are just as necessary to it as is a virus to disease.