There is more pleasure to building castles in the air than on the ground.

[Arabs are] a people, whom it is dangerous to provoke, and fruitless to attack.

Extreme distress, which unites the virtue of a free people, imbitters the factions of a declining monarchy.

History is indeed little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind.

Our ignorance is God; what we know is science.

The books of jurisprudence were interesting to few, and entertaining to none: their value was connected with present use, and they sunk forever as soon as that use was superseded by the innovations of fashion, superior merit, or public authority.

Persuasion is the resource of the feeble; and the feeble can seldom persuade . . .