I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience. I know no way of judging of the future but by the past.

Where error is irreparable, repentance is useless.

The pastoral labours of the archbishop of Constantinople provoked and gradually united against him two sorts of enemies; the aspiring clergy, who envied his success, and the obstinate sinners, who were offended by his reproofs. When Chrysostom thundered from the pulpit of St. Sophia against the degeneracy of the Christians, his shafts were spent among the crowd, without wounding or even marking the character of any individual.

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

The courage of a soldier is found to be the cheapest and most common quality of human nature.

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.

A heart to resolve, a head to contrive, and a hand to execute.