Society and the World

It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied.

No slave is a slave to the same lengths, and in so full a sense of the word, as a wife is.

No slave is a slave to the same lengths, and in so full a sense of the word, as a wife is.

What is now called the nature of women is an eminently artificial thing—the result of forced repression in some directions, unnatural stimulation in others.

The principle which regulates the existing social relations between the two sexes—the legal subordination of one sex to the other—is wrong in itself, and now one of the chief hindrances to human improvement.

The principle which regulates the existing social relations between the two sexes—the legal subordination of one sex to the other—is wrong in itself, and now one of the chief hindrances to human improvement.

A State which dwarfs its men, in order that they may be more docile instruments in its hands even for beneficial purposes, will find that with small men no great thing can really be accomplished.

A State which dwarfs its men, in order that they may be more docile instruments in its hands even for beneficial purposes, will find that with small men no great thing can really be accomplished.

The liberty of the individual must be thus far limited; he must not make himself a nuisance to other people.

Liberty consists in doing what one desires.

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 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.

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

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

The Conservatives … being by the law of their existence the stupidest party.

I will call no being good, who is not what I mean when I apply that epithet to my fellow-creatures; and if such a being can sentence me to hell for not so calling him, to hell I will go.

No great improvements in the lot of mankind are possible, until a great change takes place in the fundamental constitution of their modes of thought.

When it’s three o’clock in New York, it’s still 1938 in London.

Enter these enchanted woods,

All men have the mind which cannot bear [to see the suffering of] others.

Conscience: the inner voice which warns us that someone may be looking.

Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.

Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale … from hell’s heart I stab at thee.

A whaleship was my Yale College and my Harvard.