We are now in want of an art to teach how books are to be read rather than to read them. Such an art is practicable.

Her Majesty is not a subject.

Knowledge must be gained by ourselves. Mankind may supply us with facts; but the results, even if they agree with previous ones, must be the work of our own minds.

Demagogues and agitators are very unpleasant, they are incidental to a free and constitutional country, and you must put up with these inconveniences or do without many important advantages.

The most powerful men are not public men: a public man is responsible, and a responsible man is a slave. It is private life that governs the world.

Conservatism discards Prescription, shrinks from Principle, disavows Progress; having rejected all respect for antiquity, it offers no redress for the present, and makes no preparation for the future.

Destiny is our will, and our will is nature.