Education, which was at first made universal in order that all might be able to read and write, has been found capable of serving quite other purposes. By instilling nonsense it unifies populations and generates collective enthusiasm.

Envy ... is one form of a vice, partly moral, partly intellectual, which consists in seeing things never in themselves but only in their relations.

In America everybody is of opinion that he has no social superiors, since all men are equal, but he does not admit that he has no social inferiors.

Belief in a Divine mission is one of the many forms of certainty that have afflicted the human race.

Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty.

Neither a man nor a crowd nor a nation can be trusted to act humanely or to think sanely under the influence of a great fear.

Folly is perennial and yet the human race has survived.

Ants and savages put strangers to death.

Happiness is not best achieved by those who seek it directly; and it would seem that the same is true of the good.

A good man will never suspect his friends of shady actions: this is part of his goodness. A good man will never be suspected by the public of using his goodness to screen villains: this is part of his utility