A boy's will is his life, and he dies when it is broken, as the colt dies in harness, taking a new nature in becoming tame.

History is the most aristocratic of all literary pursuits, because it obliges the historian to be rich as well as educated.

Politics is simply the organization of hatreds.

We combat obstacles in order to get repose, and when got, the repose is insupportable.

My own conclusion is that history is simply social development along the lines of weakest resistance, and that in most cases the line of weakest resistance is found as unconsciously by society as by water.

Society is immoral and immortal; it can afford to commit any kind of folly, and indulge in any sort of vice; it cannot be killed, and the fragments that survive can always laugh at the dead.

History will die if not irritated. The only service I can do to my profession is to serve as a flea.