In on summer they have done their business... they have completely pulled down to the ground their monarchy, their church, their nobility, their law, their revenue, their army, their navy, their commerce, their arts, and their manufactures... destroyed all balances and counterpoises which serve to fix a state and give it steady direction, and then they melted down the whole into one incongrous mass of mob and democracy... the people, along with their political servitude, have thrown off the yoke of law and morals.

In the weakness of one kind of authority, and in the fluctuation of all, the officers of an army will remain for some time mutinous and full of faction, until some popular general, who understands the art of conciliating the soldiery, and who possesses the true spirit of command, shall draw the eyes of all men upon himself. Armies will obey him on his personal account. There is no other way of securing military obedience in this state of things.

Superstition is the religion of feeble minds.

Restraint and discipline and examples of virtue and justice. These are the things that form the education of the world.

Passion for fame: A passion which is the instinct of all great souls.

Magnanimity in politics is not seldom the truest wisdom; and a great empire and little minds go ill together.

Nothing, indeed, but the possession of some power can with any certainty discover what at the bottom is the true character of any man.