Among the innumerable monuments of architecture constructed by the Romans, how many have escaped the notice of history, how few have resisted the ravages of time and barbarism! And yet even the majestic ruins that are still scattered over Italy and the provinces, would be sufficient to prove that those countries were once the seat of a polite and powerful empire.

Revenge is profitable, gratitude is expensive.

Instead of a perpetual and perfect measure of the divine will, the fragments of the Koran were produced at the discretion of Mahomet; each revelation is suited to the emergencies of his policy or passion; and all contradiction is removed by the saving maxim that any text of Scripture is abrogated or modified by any subsequent passage.

Ignorant of the arts of luxury, the primitive Romans had improved the science of government and war.

Books are those faithful mirrors that reflect to our mind the minds of sages and heroes.

[The] operation of the wisest laws is imperfect and precarious. They seldom inspire virtue, they cannot always restrain vice.

Truth, naked, unblushing truth, the first virtue of all serious history, must be the sole recommendation of this personal narrative.