Georg Simmel

"The true educator teaches not knowledge but the ability to learn."

"Stigma is a form of social devaluation that precedes behavior."

"Marriage is the institutionalization of personal sentiment."

"The mob represents the leveling of individual consciousness."

"Taste is the refinement of nature through culture."

"Forgetting is as necessary to memory as remembering."

"The casual acquaintance requires the greatest tact."

"All social forms eventually contain seeds of their own dissolution."

"Consciousness is always consciousness of something social."

"The questioner is the one who maintains intellectual freedom."

"Tragedy occurs when two rights collide."

"The philosophy of money is the philosophy of life condensed."

"Sympathy extends consciousness beyond the boundaries of the individual."

"The servant knows the master through service."

"Innovation requires the courage to be different."

"All meaning is constructed through social interaction."

"The artist creates not what is, but what could be."

"Justice is the attempt to balance competing claims fairly."

"Tradition is the form in which the dead still govern the living."

"The child learns society through imitation and distinction."

"Envy is the refusal to acknowledge another's good fortune."

"The promise binds the future to the present."

"Philosophy begins where common sense becomes uncertain."

"Respect requires acknowledging the autonomy of others."

"The circle of intimates shrinks as society grows larger."

"History is the laboratory of social possibility."

"Ambition is the desire to transcend one's current position."

"The slave and master create each other through struggle."

"Laughter releases the tension of social norms temporarily."

"The bureaucrat is the modern embodiment of efficiency and alienation."