There is no obligation on us to be richer, or busier, or more efficient, or more productive, or more progressive, or any way worldlier or wealthier, if it does not make us happier.

The big corporation is not in the least remarkable for efficiency; it is only too big to be blamed for its inefficiency.

The whole truth is generally the ally of virtue; a half-truth is always the ally of some vice.

If we are bound to improve, we need not trouble to improve. The pure doctrine of progress is the best of all reasons for not being a progressive.

Ivory may not be so white as snow, but the whole Arctic continent does not make ivory black.

When you break the big laws, you do not get liberty; you do not even get anarchy. You get the small laws.

"The Universe repeats itself, with the possible exception of history." Of all earthly studies history is the only one that does not repeat itself. ... Astronomy repeats itself; botany repeats itself; trigonometry repeats itself; mechanics repeats itself; compound long division repeats itself. Every sum if worked out in the same way at any time will bring out the same answer. ... A great many moderns say that history is a science; if so it occupies a solitary and splendid elevation among the sciences; it is the only science the conclusions of which are always wrong.