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

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

We Jews regard our race as superior to all humanity, and look forward, not to its ultimate union with other races, but to its triumph over them.

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.

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.

The materials of the novelist must be real; they must be gathered from the field of humanity by his actual observation.