At the age of five years to enter a spinning-cotton or other factory, and from that time forth to sit there daily, first ten, then twelve, and ultimately fourteen hours, performing the same mechanical labour, is to purchase dearly the satisfaction of drawing breath. But this is the fate of millions, and that of millions more is analogous to it.

Life is a business that does not cover the costs.

...this our world, which is so real, with all its suns and milky ways is--nothing.

There is only one inborn erroneous notion ... that we exist in order to be happy ... So long as we persist in this inborn error ... the world seems to us full …

Civilization has done little for labor except to modify the forms of its exploitation.

The rush to California, for instance, and the attitude, not merely of merchants, but of philosophers and prophets, so called, in relation to it, reflect the gr…

The exploitation of labor must be applied to the highest possible limits so that the job results in the rendered principle.