When poverty is defined in terms of what people consume rather than what they earn, we find that the American poverty rate has declined by ninety percent since 1960, from 30 percent of the population to just 3 percent.

— Steven Pinker, Enlightenment Now

Bureaucratic structures are resistant to change, for better (resisting external corruption or authoritarian leaders) and for worse (failing to adapt fast enough to meet customer and employee needs).

— Marina Nitze and Nick Sinai, Hack Your Bureaucracy

Freedom is measured by the (logical) distance between one’s aspirations and the expectations inflicted on one by Others

— Mariam Thalos, A Social Theory of Freedom

We also know the kind of ill mental health and neurosis that can arise in the person who attempts to guard against his subconscious compulsions at all costs, by means of only his conscious faculties.

— Roman Gelperin, Addiction, Procrastination, and Laziness

Call no man happy until he is dead

— Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics