Society is infected with ...

Society is infected with rude, cynical, restless, and frivolous persons who prey upon the rest, and whom no public opinion concentrated into good manners, forms accepted by the sense of all, can reach; the contradictors and railers at public and private tables, who are like terriers, who conceive it the duty of a dog of honor to growl at any passer-by, and do the honors of the house by barking him out of sight.
Society is infected with rude, cynical, restless, and frivolous persons who prey upon the rest, and whom no public opinion concentrated into good manners, forms accepted by the sense of all, can reach; the contradictors and railers at public and private tables, who are like terriers, who conceive it the duty of a dog of honor to growl at any passer-by, and do the honors of the house by barking him out of sight.

Quotes from the same author

Thought is the blossom; language the bud; action the fruit behind it.
The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common.
Our distrust is very expensive.
Wisdom has its root in goodness, not goodness its root in wisdom.
Do not follow where the path may lead. Go, instead, where there is no path and leave a trail.