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

Hosts of merchants encumber the cities, and the streets are cluttered with solicitors who swarm without limit or purpose.

...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.

Any civilized administration, however organized, prefers its own good to that of the people.

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

Attractions are proportional to destinies.

Once upon a time people talked about the infallibility of the pope; today it is that of the merchant which they wish to establish.