People who feel themselves to be exiles in this world are mightily inclined to believe themselves citizens of another.

A great man need not be virtuous, nor his opinions right, but he must have a firm mind, a distinctive luminous character.

Government is the political representative of a natural equilibrium, of custom, of inertia; it is by no means a representative of reason.

Wealth, religion, military victory have more rhetorical than efficacious worth.

The true Christian is in all countries a pilgrim and a stranger.

The working of great institutions is mainly the result of a vast mass of routine, petty malice, self interest, carelessness and sheer mistake. Only a residual fraction is thought.

Philosophers are very severe towards other philosophers because they expect too much.