Society is a long series of uprising ridges, 15 which from the first to the last offer no valley of repose. Wherever you take your stand, you are looked down upon by those above you, and reviled and pelted by those below you. Bulwer Lytton.
Society is a masked ball, where every one hides his real character, and reveals it by hiding. Emerson.
Society is a republic. When an individual endeavours to lift himself above his fellows, he is dragged down by the mass, either by ridicule or calumny. Victor Hugo.
Society is a troop of thinkers, and the best heads among them take the best places. Emerson.
Society is a wave. The wave moves onward, but the water of which it is composed does not.... Its unity is only phenomenal. Emerson.
Society is, and must be, based upon appearances, 20 and not upon the deepest realities. Hamerton.
Society is barbarous, until every industrious man can get his living without dishonest customs. Emerson.
Society is composed of two great classes: those who have more dinners than appetite, and those who have more appetite than dinners. Chamfort.
Society is divisible into two classes: shearers and shorn. Talleyrand.
Society is ever under the imperious necessity of moving onward in legal forms, nor can such forms be evaded without the most serious disasters forthwith ensuing. Draper.