In practice, such trifles as contradictions in principle are easily set aside; the faculty of ignoring them makes the practical man.

Analogies are figures intended to serve as fatal weapons if they succeed, and as innocent toys if they fail.

History is only a value of relation.

I tell you the solemn truth, that the doctrine of the Trinity is not so difficult to accept for a working proposition as any one of the axioms of physics.

A certain secret jealousy of the British Minister is always lurking in the breast of every American Senator, if he is truly democratic; for democracy, rightly understood, is the government of the people, by the people, for the benefit of Senators, and there is always a danger that the British Minister may not understand this political principle as he should.

A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.

The new American, like the new European, was the servant of the powerhouse, as the European of the twelfth century was the servant of the Church.