Every man who rises above the common level has received two educations: the first from his teachers; the second, more personal and important, from himself.

[Every] hour of delay abates the fame and force of the invader, and multiplies the resources of defensive war.

The science of the laws is the slow growth of time and experience.

But the sages of Greece and Rome turned aside from the awful spectacle, and, pursuing the ordinary occupations of life and study, appeared unconscious of any alterations in the moral of physical government of the world.

Man has much more to fear from the passions of his fellow-creatures, than from the convulsions of the elements.

If a man were called to fix the period in the history of the world during which the condition of the human race was most happy and prosperous, he would, without hesitation, name that which elapsed from the death of Domitian to the accession of Commodus.

If we contrast the rapid progress of this mischievous discovery [gunpowder] with the slow and laborious advances of reason, science, and the arts of peace, a philosopher, according to his temper, will laugh or weep at the folly of mankind.