A senator is like a begonia - showy but useless.

Nothing is more tiresome than a superannuated pedagogue.

Whenever a man reaches the top of the political ladder, his enemies unite to pull him down. His friends become critical and exacting.

Power when wielded by abnormal energy is the most serious of facts.

I have written too much history to have faith in it; and if anyone thinks I'm wrong, I am inclined to agree with him.

You say that love is nonsense. I tell you it is no such thing. For weeks and months it is a steady physical pain, an ache about the heart, never leaving one, by night or by day; a long strain on one's nerves like toothache or rheumatism, not intolerable at any one instant, but exhausting by its steady drain on the strength.

As history stands, it is a sort of Chinese play, without end andl without lesson. With these impressions I wrote the last line of my History, asking for a round century before going further.