for nothing contributes so much to tranquillize the mind as a steady purpose — a point on which the soul may fix its intellectual eye. - Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

A standing army, for instance, is incompatible with freedom; because subordination and rigour are the very sinews of military discipline; and despotism is necessary to give vigour to enterprise that one will directs. A spirit inspired by romantic notions of honour, a kind of morality founded on the fashion of the age, can only be felt by a few officers, whilst the main body must be moved by command, like the waves of the sea; for the strong wind of authority pushes the crowd of subalterns forward, they scarcely know or care why, with headlong fury.

I read of men concerned in public affairs governing or massacring their species.

I am alone and miserable. Only someone as ugly as I am could love me.