In this age, the mere example of nonconformity, the mere refusal to bend the knee to custom, is itself a service.

The successful conduct of an industrial enterprise requires two quite distinct qualifications: fidelity and zeal.

The duty of man is the same in respect to his own nature as in respect to the nature of all other things, namely not to follow it but to amend it.

The despotism of custom is everywhere the standing hindrance to human advancement.

The only power deserving the name is that of masses, and of governments while they make themselves the organ of the tendencies and instincts of masses.

Every established fact which is too bad to admit of any other defence is always presented to us as an injunction of religion.

I have observed that not the man who hopes when others despair, but the man who despairs when others hope, is admired by a large class of persons as a sage.