The novelist must look on humanity without partiality or prejudice. His sympathy, like that of the historian, must be unbounded, and untainted by sect or party.

The father of confederation is deadlock.

The insular arrogance of the English character is a commonplace joke.

Dante himself is open to the suspicion of partiality: it is said, not without apparent ground, that he puts into hell all the enemies of the political cause, which, in his eyes, was that of Italy and God.

Rome was great in arms, in government, in law.

Ancient history, besides the still unequalled excellence of the writers, is the best instrument for cultivating the historical sense.

In my youth,geology was nervously striving to accommodate itself to Genesis. Now it is Genesis that is striving to accommodate itself to geology.