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

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

[It] is the interest as well as duty of a sovereign to maintain the authority of the laws.

It is impossible to reduce, or, at least, to hold a distant country against the wishes and efforts of its inhabitants.

The retirement of Athanasius, which ended only with the life of Constantius, was spent, for the most part, in the society of the monks, who faithfully served him as guards, as secretaries, and as messengers; but the importance of maintaining a more intimate connection with the catholic party tempted him, whenever the diligence of the pursuit was abated, to emerge from the desert, to introduce himself into Alexandria, and to trust his person to the discretion of his friends and adherents.

The single combats of the heroes of history or fable amuse our fancy and engage our affections: the skillful evolutions of war may inform the mind, and improve a necessary, though pernicious, science. But in the uniform and odious pictures of a general assault, all is blood, and horror, and confusion . . .

Bad roads and indifferent inns, ... the continual converse one is obliged to have with the vilest part of mankind - innkeepers, post-masters, and custom house officers.