The savage nations of the globe are the common enemies of civilized society; and we may inquire, with anxious curiosity, whether Europe is still threatened with a repetition of those calamities, which formerly oppressed the arms and institutions of Rome.

I never make the mistake of arguing with people for whose opinions I have no respect.

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

[Courage] arises in a great measure from the consciousness of strength . . .

If this Punic war was carried on without any effusion of blood, it was owing much less to the moderation than to the weakness of the contending prelates.

The subject, however various and important, has already been so frequently, so ably, and so successfully discussed, that it is now grown familiar to the reader, and difficult to the writer.

The criminal penalties [for suicide] are the production of a later and darker age.