To admit that there is any such thing as chance, in the common acceptation of the term, would be to attempt to establish a power independent of God.

There can be no Christianity where there is no charity

It is seldom that statesmen have the option of choosing between a good and an evil.

He that studies books alone, will know how things ought to be; and he that studies men, will know how things are.

A wise man may be duped as well as a fool; but the fool publishes the triumph of his deceiver; the wise man is silent, and denies that triumph to an enemy which he would hardly concede to a friend; a triumph that proclaims his own defeat.

For what are the triumphs of war, planned by ambition, executed by violence, and consummated by devastation? The means are the sacrifice of many, the end, the bloated aggrandizement of the few.

To know the pains of power, we must go to those who have it; to know its pleasures, we must go to those who are seeking it: the pains of power are real, its pleasures imaginary.