His manners were less pure, but his character was equally amiable with that of his father. Twenty-two acknowledged concubines, and a library of sixty-two thousand volumes, attested the variety of his inclinations, and from the productions which he left behind him, it appears that the former as well as the latter were designed for use rather than ostentation.

In the field of controversy I always pity the moderate party, who stand on the open middle ground exposed to the fire of both sides.

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

The laws of probability, so true in general, so fallacious in particular.

A jurisdiction thus vague and arbitrary was exposed to the most dangerous abuse: the substance, as well as the form, of justice were often sacrificed to the prejudices of virtue, the bias of laudable affection, and the grosser seductions of interest or resentment.

[The] emperor of the West, the feeble and dissolute Valentinian, [had] reached his thirty-fifth year without attaining the age of reason or courage.

Greek is a musical and prolific language, that gives a soul to the objects of sense, and a body to the abstractions of philosophy.