The Indian who fells the tree that he may gather the fruit, and the Arab who plunders the caravans of commerce are actuated by the same impulse of savage nature, and relinquish for momentary rapine the long and secure possession of the most important blessings.

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

Let us read with method, and propose to ourselves an end to which our studies may point. The use of reading is to aid us in thinking.

The patient and active virtues of a soldier are insensibly nursed in the habits and discipline of a pastoral life.

The authority of Plato and Aristotle, of Zeno and Epicurus, still reigned in the schools; and their systems, transmitted with blind deference from one generation of disciples to another, precluded every generous attempt to exercise the powers, or enlarge the limits, of the human mind.

[In] the national and religious conflict of the [Byzantine and Saracen] empires, peace was without confidence, and war without mercy.

It is the common calamity of old age to lose whatever might have rendered it desirable.