Vilfredo Pareto

"The price of comfort is often the loss of freedom."

"Most people are happiest when they do not think too deeply about their circumstances."

"The study of economics reveals human nature more honestly than the study of philosophy."

"Conflict is not a deviation from the normal state of society but its defining characteristic."

"The greatest achievements come from those who ignore the judgment of their contemporaries."

"Beauty and ugliness are equally distributed among all social classes."

"Time erodes all certainties except the certainty that time erodes."

"The pursuit of perfection often results in the creation of monsters."

"Those who understand systems understand that unintended consequences are always consequences."

"The stability of any society depends upon the rate of circulation of its elites."

"Most happiness comes not from achievement but from the pursuit of achievement."

"The complexity of human behavior resists all attempts at systematic reduction."

"Those who repeat that all men are equal often benefit most from inequality."

"The circulation of elites is the fundamental principle of social dynamics."

"Most people are not capable of thinking in abstractions; they need concrete examples."

"Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility."

"The study of economics does not seem to require any heroic quality."

"History is a graveyard of aristocracies."

"In the beginning there were a handful of wise men; now there are laboratories."

"The sentiments which make us social are not those which make us moral."

"Poverty is the worst form of violence against society."

"The masses do not reason; they feel and believe."

"Every society progresses through the conflict of its components."

"Mathematics is the language in which the laws of nature are written."

"Men are much more readily moved by love of gain than by love of virtue."

"The ideal of equality is a pleasing fantasy."

"Work is the province of cattle, and the argument of the Kaffirs."

"In the social realm, there are no constants, only variables."

"Human beings are not economic animals; they are social animals."

"The true religion of mankind is the search for truth."