He who calls in the aid of an equal understanding doubles his own; and he who profits by a superior understanding raises his powers to a level with the height of the superior standing he unites with.

The whole compass of the language is tried to find sinonimies [synonyms] and circumlocutions for massacres and murder. Things never called by their common names. Massacre is sometimes called agitation, sometimes effervescence, sometimes excess sometimes too continued an exercise of revolutionary power.

A man is allowed sufficient freedom of thought, provided he knows how to choose his subject properly.... But the scene is changed as you come homeward, and atheism or treason may be the names given in Britain to what would be reason and truth if asserted in China.

Prudence is not only the first in rank of the virtues political and moral, but she is the director and regulator, the standard of them all.

War never leaves where it found a nation.

There never was a bad man that had ability for good service.

The same sun which gilds all nature, and exhilarates the whole creation, does not shine upon disappointed ambition.