Ignorant of the arts of luxury, the primitive Romans had improved the science of government and war.

[All] the manly virtues were oppressed by the servile and pusillanimous reign of the monks.

Our work is the presentation of our capabilities.

Instead of a perpetual and perfect measure of the divine will, the fragments of the Koran were produced at the discretion of Mahomet; each revelation is suited to the emergencies of his policy or passion; and all contradiction is removed by the saving maxim that any text of Scripture is abrogated or modified by any subsequent passage.

In the productions of the mind, as in those of the soil, the gifts of nature are excelled by industry and skill . . .

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

If Julian had flattered himself that his personal connexion with the capital of the East would be productive of mutual satisfaction to the prince and people, he made a very false estimate of his own character, and of the manners of Antioch. The warmth of the climate disposed the natives to the most intemperate enjoyment of tranquillity and opulence; and the lively licentiousness of the Greeks was blended with the hereditary softness of the Syrians.