Hope, the best comfort of our imperfect condition.

The fierce and partial writers of the times, ascribing all virtue to themselves, and imputing all guilt to their adversaries, have painted the battle of the angels and the demons.

The pathetic almost always consists in the detail of little events.

The progress of despotism tends to disappoint its own purpose.

In the field of controversy I always pity the moderate party, who stand on the open middle ground exposed to the fire of both sides.

The Gauls were endowed with all the advantages of art and nature; but as they wanted courage to defend them, they were justly condemned to obey, and even to flatter, the victorious Barbarians, by whose clemency they held their precarious fortunes and their lives.

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