We improve ourselves by victories over ourselves. There must be contest, and we must win.

The vain, inconstant, rebellious disposition of the people [of Armorica], was incompatible either with freedom or servitude.

To an active mind, indolence is more painful than labor.

I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience. I know no way of judging of the future but by the past.

Imam Hussain's sacrifice is for all groups and communities, an example of the path of rightousness.

The love of action is a principle of a much stronger and more doubtful nature. It often leads to anger, to ambition, and to revenge; but when it is guided by the sense of propriety and benevolence, it becomes the parent of every virtue, and, if those virtues are accompanied with equal abilities, a family, a state, or an empire may be indebted for their safety and prosperity to the undaunted courage of a single man.

The ancients were destitute of many of the conveniences of life which have been invented or improved by the progress of industry; and the plenty of glass and linen has diffused more real comforts among the modern nations of Europe than the senators of Rome could derive from all the refinements of pompous or sensual luxury.