Civil government, so far as it is instituted for the security of property, is in reality instituted for the defense of the rich against the poor, or of those who have some property against those who have none at all.
Science is the great antidote to the poison of enthusiasm and superstition.
The first thing you have to know is yourself. A man who knows himself can step outside himself and watch his own reactions like an observer.
The profligacy of a man of fashion is looked upon with much less contempt and aversion, than that of a man of meaner condition.
Though those different plans were, perhaps, first introduced by the private interests and prejudices of particular orders of men, without any regard to, or foresight of, their consequences upon the general welfare of the society;.
No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable.
To feel much for others and little for ourselves; to restrain our selfishness and exercise our benevolent affections, constitute the perfection of human nature.
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.
The real tragedy of the poor is the poverty of their aspirations.