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One civilization after another has been wrecked upon the attempt to secure sufficient leadership from a single group or class.

Society is like a stew. If you don't stir it up every once in a while then a layer of scum floats to the top.

Many a person who started out to conquer the world in shining army has ended up just getting along. The horse got tired, the army rusty. The goal was removed and unsure.

We always get bored with those whom we bore.

Those who have wrought great changes in the world never succeeded by gaining over chiefs; but always by exciting the multitude. The first is the resource of intrigue and produces only secondary results, the second is the resort of genius and transforms the universe.

The toute ensemble was such as to make polished society blush, when compared with these savages.

Society has arisen out of the works of peace; the essence of society is peacemaking.

The only society I like is rough and tough, and the tougher the better. There's where you get down to bedrock and meet human people.

Of all the passions of mankind, the love of novelty most rules the mind. In search of this, from realm to realm we roam. Our fleets come loaded with every folly home.

I suppose society is wonderfully delightful. To be in it is merely a bore. But to be out of it is simply a tragedy.