Serious occupation is labor that has reference to some want.

No man is a hero to his valet de chamber

Every idea, extended into infinity, becomes its own opposite.

The nature of finite things is to have the seed of their passing-away as their essential being: the hour of their birth is the hour of their death.

An individual piece only has meaning when it is seen as part of the whole.

Rulers, Statesmen, Nations, are wont to be emphatically commended to the teaching which experience offers in history. But what experience and history teach is this - that people and governments never have learned anything from history, or acted on principles deduced from it. Each period is involved in such peculiar circumstances, exhibits a condition of things so strictly idiosyncratic, that its conduct must be regulated by considerations connected with itself, and itself alone.

The first glance at History convinces us that the actions of men proceed from their needs, their passions, their characters and talents; and impresses us with the belief that such needs, passions and interests are the sole spring of actions.