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“Society in equality is its normal state.”
Mill contrasts relations organized around command and obedience with equal association, presenting equality as the normal direction of an improving society.
Source note: The Subjection of Women, discussion of marriage and moral cultivation; the sentence follows Mill’s contrast between older command-and-obedience relations and society among equals.
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“Humanity does not desire to be great, but to be beloved.”
Smith contrasts humane character with status-seeking by presenting affection and social trust, rather than greatness itself, as the fitting reward of humanity.
Source note: The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Part III, in Smith’s discussion of the rewards commonly associated with industry, truth, justice, and humanity.
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“What dost thou think most humane?—To spare a person shame.”
The compact answer makes restraint from humiliating another person a test of humane conduct and sensitivity to dignity.
Source note: The Joyful Wisdom, aphorism 274; Thomas Common translation.
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“Men exist for the sake of one another. Teach them then or bear with them.”
Human interdependence creates two practical choices when others fall short: help them learn when possible, or practice patient endurance when change is unavailable.
Source note: Meditations, Book VIII; George Long translation in Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus.
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“Man is not the enemy of man, but through the medium of a false system of Government.”
Paine attributes much social conflict to institutions and inherited political systems rather than treating hostility as an unavoidable feature of human nature.
Source note: Rights of Man, Part II; represented from the Conway public-domain collection.
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“Good men are mutually helpful.”
Moral development is not purely solitary; people can strengthen one another through counsel, example, correction, and shared practice.
Source note: Letter 109 considers whether one wise person can benefit another and answers that good people are mutually useful.