Society itself is an accident ...

Society itself is an accident to the spirit, and if society in any of its forms is to be justified morally it must be justified at the bar of the individual conscience.
Society itself is an accident to the spirit, and if society in any of its forms is to be justified morally it must be justified at the bar of the individual conscience.

Quotes from the same author

America is a young country with an old mentality.
One's friends are that part of the human race with which one can be human.
Friendship is almost always the union of a part of one mind with the part of another; people are friends in spots.
Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
Saints cannot arise where there have been no warriors, nor philosophers where a prying beast does not remain hidden in the depths.