Society can and does execute its own mandates， and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right， or any mandates at all in things with which it ought not to meddle， it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression， since， though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties， it leaves fewer means of escape， penetrating much more deeply into the details of life， and enslaving the soul itself.
The fountain of content must spring up in the mind, and they who have so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but their own dispositions will waste their lives in fruitless efforts.
