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

It is evident that in the period designated as that of the kings, when Rome commenced her career of conquest, she was, for that time and country, a great and wealthy city.

No student of history can fail to see the moral interest of the Middle Ages, any more than an artist can fail to see their aesthetic interest.

America is supposed to be given over to ugliness. There are a good many ugly things there and the ugliest are the most pretentious.

Every one who has a heart, however ignorant of architecture he may be, feels the transcendent beauty and poetry of the mediaeval churches.

There are the manufacturing multitudes of England; they must have work, and find markets for their work; if machines and the Black Country are ugly, famine would be uglier still.

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