The human race is a monotonous affair. Most people spend the greatest part of their time working in order to live, and what little freedom remains so fills them with fear that they seek out any and every means to be rid of it.

Von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang. "Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship." Goethe: The Collected Works, edited and translated by Eric A. Blackall. Vol. 9, Princeton University Press, 1995, bk. 7, ch. 5.

Paine, Thomas. "Common Sense." Rights of Man, Common Sense, and Other Political Writings, edited by Mark Philp. Oxford University Press, 2009, introduction.

Nietzsche, Friedrich. Nietzsche: Thus Spoke Zarathustra, edited by Robert Pippin, translated by Adrian Del Caro. Cambridge University Press, 2006, pt. 1.