Flattery is a foolish suicide; she destroys herself with her own hands.

The history of empires is the record of human misery; the history of the sciences is that of the greatness and happiness of mankind.

Such was the unhappy condition of the Roman emperors, that, whatever might be their conduct, their fate was commonly the same. A life of pleasure or virtue, of severity or mildness, of indolence or glory, alike led to an untimely grave; and almost every reign is closed by the same disgusting repetition of treason and murder.

The mathematics are distinguished by a particular privilege, that is, in the course of ages, they may always advance and can never recede.

[The] vain and transitory scenes of human greatness are unworthy of a serious thought.

There exists in human nature a strong propensity to depreciate the advantages, and to magnify the evils, of the present times.

The archiepiscopal throne of Macedonius, which had been polluted with so much Christian blood, was successively filled by Eudoxus and Damophilus. Their diocese enjoyed a free importation of vice and error from every province of the empire; the eager pursuit of religious controversy afforded a new occupation to the busy idleness of the metropolis: and we may credit the assertion of an intelligent observer, who describes, with some pleasantry, the effects of their loquacious zeal.