The gothic is singular in this; one seems easily at home in the renaissance; one is not too strange in the Byzantine; as for the Roman, it is ourselves; and we could walk blindfolded through every chink and cranny of the Greek mind; all these styles seem modern when we come close to them; but the gothic gets away.

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

The work of internal government has become the task of controlling the thousands of fifth-rate men.

In correct theology, the Virgin ought not to be represented in bed, for she could not suffer like ordinary women, but her palace at Chartres is not much troubled by theology, and to her, as empress-mother, the pain of child-birth was a pleasure which she wanted her people to share.

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.

Some day science may have the existence of mankind in its power, and the human race commit suicide, by blowing up the world.

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