Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new. – Henry David Thoreau, Walden, 1854

History does not teach fatalism. There are moments when the will of a handful of free men breaks through determinism and opens up new roads. People get the history they deserve. – Charles de Gaulle

Mental slavery is mental death, and every man who has given up his intellectual freedom is the living coffin of his dead soul. – Robert Ingersoll, Individuality

I believe more follies are committed out of complaisance to the world, than in following our own inclinations. – Mary Wortley Montagu