There are people into whose heads it never enters to conceive of any better state of society than that which now exists.

Unless there be correct thought, there cannot be any action, and when there is correct thought, right action will follow.

Everybody works but the vacant lot

The tolerance of wrong dulls our sense of its injustice. Men may become accustomed to theft, murder, even to slavery - that sum of all villainies - so they see no injustice in it, yet that which is unjust is unjust still.

It is not from top to bottom that societies die; it is from bottom to top.

Compare society to a boat. Her progress through the water will not depend upon the exertion of her crew, but upon the exertion devoted to propelling her. This will be lessened by any expenditure of force in fighting among themselves, or in pulling in different directions.

As it is with an individual, so it is with a nation. One must produce to have, or one will become a have-not.