History is only time furnished with dates and rich with events.
Axioms are delightful in theory, but impossible in practice.
Reason is an historian, but the passions are actors.
Memory always obeys the commands of the heart.
The most civilized people are as near to barbarism as the most polished steel is to rust. Nations, like metals, have only a superficial brilliancy.
It is, no doubt, an immense advantage to have done nothing, but one should not abuse it.