Passages about society and the state

I sing of arms and of the man who first came, a fugitive by fate, from the coasts of Troy to Italy and the Lavinian shores.

Can there be such anger in the minds of the gods?

A prince who wants to keep his position must learn how not to be good, and must use that knowledge or hold it back as necessity requires.

Because men are ungrateful and break their bonds the moment it profits them, fear, which a prince controls, is a safer foundation than love, which he does not.

During the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called war, and such a war as is of every man against every man.

And the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.

The first man who enclosed a piece of ground and took it into his head to say, this is mine, and found people simple enough to believe him, was the true founder of civil society.

Man is naturally good, and it is our institutions alone that have made him bad.

These are the researches of Herodotus of Halicarnassus, which he publishes, in the hope of thereby preserving from decay the remembrance of what men have done, and of preventing the great and wonderful actions of the Greeks and the Barbarians from losing their due meed of glory.

Solon tells Croesus that no one can be called happy while he still lives, since a god can throw down the most fortunate man at the end, and only a finished life can be judged.

I proclaim that justice is nothing else than the interest of the stronger.

Glaucon imagines a ring that makes its wearer invisible and asks whether any man, just or unjust, would keep his hands off what he wanted.

The greatest improvement in the productive powers of labour, and the greater part of the skill, dexterity, and judgment with which it is any where directed, or applied, seem to have been the effects of the division of labour.

It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.

Among the new objects that drew my attention during my stay in the United States, none struck me more forcibly than the equality of conditions.

A power rises above the citizens, absolute, detailed, regular, provident and mild. It would be like a father's authority if, like that, its object were to prepare men for manhood, but it seeks instead to keep them permanently in childhood.

The real cause I consider to be the one which was formally most kept out of sight. The growth of the power of Athens, and the alarm which this inspired in Lacedaemon, made war inevitable.

For heroes have the whole earth for their tomb.

For it is not histories that I am writing, but lives.

A small thing, a phrase or a joke, often shows character better than battles with thousands of dead and the greatest sieges.

In a village of La Mancha, the name of which I have no desire to call to mind, there lived not long since one of those gentlemen that keep a lance in the lance-rack, an old buckler, a lean hack, and a greyhound for coursing.

Sancho points out that the giants are windmills, and Quixote answers that the enchanter Freston turned them into windmills to rob him of the glory of the victory.

The state of nature has a law of nature to govern it, which obliges every one: and reason, which is that law, teaches all mankind, who will but consult it, that being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions.

Whatsoever then he removes out of the state that nature hath provided, and left it in, he hath mixed his labour with, and joined to it something that is his own, and thereby makes it his property.

We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.

A spectre is haunting Europe: the spectre of communism.

The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.

The wealth of those societies in which the capitalist mode of production prevails, presents itself as an immense accumulation of commodities, its unit being a single commodity.

A commodity appears, at first sight, a very trivial thing, and easily understood. Its analysis shows that it is, in reality, a very queer thing, abounding in metaphysical subtleties and theological niceties.

Zeus, who sets mortals on the way to understanding, has ordained the fixed law that wisdom comes by suffering.

The watchman on the roof says he has been lying there a year like a dog, learning the stars by heart, and that he would speak if the house could bear it, but an ox stands on his tongue.

Then we ought not to retaliate or render evil for evil to any one, whatever evil we may have suffered from him.

Socrates says that they should follow not the opinion of the many about what is just but the opinion of the one who understands it, as a man in training listens to his trainer rather than to the crowd.

Man is by nature a political animal.

He who is unable to live in society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for himself, must be either a beast or a god.

Two loves, then, have made two cities.

Remove justice, and what is a kingdom but a great band of robbers?

Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote / The droghte of March hath perced to the roote, / And bathed every veyne in swich licour / Of which vertu engendred is the flour

Experience, though noon auctoritee / Were in this world, is right ynogh for me / To speke of wo that is in mariage.

Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.

Whoever refuses to obey the general will shall be compelled to do so by the whole body; which means nothing other than that he will be forced to be free.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government.

They make a desert and call it peace.

The histories of Tiberius and Caligula, of Claudius and Nero, were falsified through cowardice while they flourished, and composed, when they fell, under the influence of still rankling hatreds.

In every republic there are two different inclinations, that of the people and that of the great men, and all the laws that are made in favour of liberty are born of the disunion between them.

For as good customs have need of laws to maintain them, so laws have need of good customs in order to be observed.

I cannot but conclude the bulk of your natives to be the most pernicious race of little odious vermin that nature ever suffered to crawl upon the surface of the earth.

And he gave it for his opinion, that whoever could make two ears of corn or two blades of grass to grow upon a spot of ground where only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind, and do more essential service to his country, than the whole race of politicians put together.

Ambition must be made to counteract ambition. The interest of the man must be connected with the constitutional rights of the place.

If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.

The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilised community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant.

If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.

If we had a keen vision and feeling of all ordinary human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow and the squirrel's heart beat, and we should die of that roar which lies on the other side of silence.

We are all of us born in moral stupidity, taking the world as an udder to feed our supreme selves.

I walk on air and contemplate the sun.

Zeus? What Zeus? There is no Zeus.

You don't know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain't no matter.

Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot.

The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color-line.

It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others, of measuring one's soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity.

Life, as we find it, is too hard for us; it brings us too many pains, disappointments and impossible tasks.

Man has become a kind of prosthetic God.

One is not born, but rather becomes, woman.

Humanity is male, and man defines woman not in herself but in relation to himself.

And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM.

Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness.

The mother is not the parent of what is called her child, but the nurse of the newly sown seed. The one who mounts is the parent.

This is my ruling: a tie in the votes acquits the man.

There was Chaos and Night and black Erebus at first, and wide Tartarus, and no earth or air or sky; and in the boundless bosom of Erebus black-winged Night brought forth a wind-egg.

What do you want to call the place? Something grand, out of the clouds, plenty of puff to it. Cloudcuckooland?

Brekekekex koax koax.

The poet should be admired for skill and for good counsel, and because we make people better in their cities.

The foundation of justice is good faith, that is, steadiness and truthfulness in what is said and agreed.

There are two ways of settling a dispute: by discussion and by force. Since the first is proper to man and the second to beasts, we should resort to the second only when the first is not available.

The study of history is the best medicine for a sick mind, for in history you have a record of the infinite variety of human experience plainly set out for all to see.

Of late years wealth has made us greedy, and self-indulgence has brought us to the point where we can endure neither our vices nor their cure.

What part of life is not sorrowful and unpleasant, dull, insipid and troublesome, unless you add pleasure to it, that is to say, a seasoning of folly?

Now what else is the whole life of mortals but a sort of comedy, in which the various actors, disguised by various costumes and masks, walk on and play each one his part?

Your sheep, that were wont to be so meek and tame and so small eaters, now, as I hear say, be become so great devourers and so wild, that they eat up and swallow down the very men themselves.

For what justice is this, that a rich goldsmith or an usurer should have a pleasant and wealthy living, and in the meantime a poor labourer, a carter, a smith, without whom no commonwealth could continue, should get so hard and poor a living?

Heresy is a spiritual matter which no iron can strike, no fire burn, no water drown.

The soul is not under the authority of Caesar; he can neither teach nor guide it, neither kill it nor give it life, neither bind it nor loose it.

Our wisdom, in so far as it ought to be deemed true and solid wisdom, consists almost entirely of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves.

Man's nature, so to speak, is a perpetual factory of idols.

This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle, this earth of majesty, this seat of Mars, this other Eden, demi-paradise.

Not all the water in the rough rude sea can wash the balm off from an anointed king.

I know you all, and will awhile uphold the unyoked humour of your idleness.

What is honour? A word. What is in that word honour? What is that honour? Air. A trim reckoning. Who hath it? He that died o' Wednesday.

The End of our Foundation is the knowledge of Causes, and secret motions of things; and the enlarging of the bounds of Human Empire, to the effecting of all things possible.

We have consultations, which of the inventions and experiences which we have discovered shall be published, and which not.

In this best of all possible worlds, everything is for the best.

It is demonstrable that things cannot be otherwise than they are; for as all things have been created for some end, they must necessarily be created for the best end. Noses were made to carry spectacles, so we have spectacles.

In the second century of the Christian era, the Empire of Rome comprehended the fairest part of the earth, and the most civilised portion of mankind.

History is indeed little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind.

The history of the world is nothing but the progress of the consciousness of freedom.

Nothing great in the world has been accomplished without passion.

The worker becomes poorer the more wealth he produces. The devaluation of the world of men is in direct proportion to the increasing value of the world of things.

The worker therefore feels himself only when he is not working, and when he is working he does not feel himself. He is at home when he is not working, and when he is working he is not at home.

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD. And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.

Man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.

We must give up sex altogether. Why are you turning away? Where are you going? Why are you biting your lips and shaking your heads? Why have you gone pale?

First we wash the fleece to get the muck out. You should do the same with the city: beat out the scoundrels, pick off the burrs, card the ones who clump together for office, and comb the whole lot into one basket.

Is it not a pleasure to learn and to repeat or practise from time to time what has been learnt? Is it not delightful to have friends coming from distant quarters?

What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.

For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.

And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.

Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?

The secret of empire was now revealed, that an emperor could be made elsewhere than at Rome.

By general consent he would have been judged capable of ruling, if only he had never ruled.

God: there is no god but Him, the Ever Living, the Ever Watchful. Neither slumber nor sleep overtakes Him. All that is in the heavens and in the earth belongs to Him.

There is no compulsion in religion: true guidance has become distinct from error.

He began to wonder what it was that had left her, and where it had gone.

Everything that comes to be must have a cause, and the chain of causes cannot go on without end, so there must be a being whose existence is necessary.

The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, / But in ourselves, that we are underlings.

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears; / I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.

What is truth? said jesting Pilate, and would not stay for an answer.

He that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune; for they are impediments to great enterprises, either of virtue or mischief.

I want us to be men, and on every occasion for the bottom of our hearts to show itself in what we say.

Sometimes it is a sign of honesty to hide what one thinks. Would it be right to tell a thousand people what one feels about them?

The care of souls cannot belong to the civil magistrate, because his power consists only in outward force; but true and saving religion consists in the inward persuasion of the mind, without which nothing can be acceptable to God.

Nobody, therefore, in fine, neither single persons nor churches, nay, nor even commonwealths, have any just title to invade the civil rights and worldly goods of each other upon pretence of religion.

Go into the Royal Exchange in London, a place more venerable than many a court, and you will see representatives of every nation assembled for the profit of mankind. There the Jew, the Mohammedan and the Christian deal with one another as if they were of the same religion, and reserve the name of infidel for those who go bankrupt.

If there were only one religion in England there would be danger of despotism, if there were two they would cut each other's throats; but there are thirty, and they live in peace and happiness.

Political liberty is not the power of doing what we please. Liberty can consist only in the power of doing what we ought to will, and in not being constrained to do what we ought not to will.

Constant experience shows us that every man invested with power is apt to abuse it, and to carry his authority as far as it will go. To prevent this abuse, it is necessary from the very nature of things that power should be a check to power.

The most pressing interest of the ruler, as also his most indispensable duty, is therefore to watch over the observation of the laws of which he is the minister and on which his whole authority is founded.

You need me, for I am rich and you are poor. Let us therefore make an agreement: I will permit you to have the honour of serving me, on condition that you give me what little you have left for the trouble I shall take in commanding you.

Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every power, jurisdiction, and right, which is not by this Confederation expressly delegated to the United States, in Congress assembled.

The said States hereby severally enter into a firm league of friendship with each other, for their common defence, the security of their liberties, and their mutual and general welfare.

Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions may be founded only upon the general good.

Liberty consists in the freedom to do everything which injures no one else; hence the exercise of the natural rights of each man has no limits except those which assure to the other members of the society the enjoyment of the same rights.

Society is indeed a contract, but it is a partnership not only between those who are living, but between those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are to be born.

I have observed that the philosophers, in order to insinuate their polluted atheism into young minds, systematically flatter all their passions.

Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.

No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money.

I do not wish them to have power over men; but over themselves.

Taught from their infancy that beauty is woman's sceptre, the mind shapes itself to the body, and roaming round its gilt cage, only seeks to adorn its prison.

What is rational is actual; and what is actual is rational.

The owl of Minerva begins its flight only with the onset of dusk.

To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men, that is genius.

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do.

The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas, that is, the class which is the ruling material force of society is at the same time its ruling intellectual force.

Life is not determined by consciousness, but consciousness by life.

What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim.

Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.

A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free.

If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong. I can not remember when I did not so think and feel.

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

We can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.

Where id was, there ego shall be. It is a work of culture, not unlike the draining of the Zuider Zee.

In its relation to the id the ego is like a man on horseback, who has to hold in check the superior strength of the horse; with this difference, that the rider tries to do so with his own strength while the ego uses borrowed forces.

They sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals, they who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth.

I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps.

Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them: You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.

You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.

An unnamed Athenian stranger walks with a Cretan and a Spartan to the cave of Zeus and drafts a legal code for a new colony called Magnesia, drawing comparatively on multiple actual historical legal traditions rather than constructing purely from abstract principle.

Over twelve books the speakers discuss the purpose of law, education, drinking parties, music, marriage, property, crime and punishment, and religion, with the preludes to each law meant to persuade citizens before compelling them rather than relying on bare command alone.