Theological Lectures, No. 5, "Of the Immortality of the Soul", reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 514.
“[A]ristocracy has a tendency to degenerate the human species.”
            Part 1.3 Rights of Man 
1790s, Rights of Man, Part I (1791)
        
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Thomas Paine 262
English and American political activist 1737–1809Related quotes
As quoted in Believer Magazine http://www.believermag.com/exclusives/?read=interview_p-orridge_rushkoff "Douglas Rushkoff in conversation with Genesis Breyer P-Orridge”.
“The human tendency to regard little things as important has produced very many great things.”
                                        
                                        G 46 
Variant translation: The inclination of people to consider small things as important has produced many great things. 
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook G (1779-1783)
                                    
Mankind Quarterly, Winter98, Vol. 39 Issue 2, p231
“Wit without humanity degenerates into bitterness. Learning without prudence into pedantry.”
The Dignity of Human Nature (1754)
Source: Why Men Are the Way They Are (1988), p. 371.
Source: Nervous Ills their Cause and Cure (1922), p. 20