The first duty of an historian is to be on his guard against his own sympathies...

To tell men that they cannot help themselves is to fling them into recklessness and despair.

Wild animals never kill for sport. Man is the only one to whom the torture and death of his fellow creatures is amusing in itself.

The superstition of science scoffs at the superstition of faith.

In every department of life--in its business and in its pleasures, in its beliefs and in its theories, in its material developments and in its spiritual connections--we thank God that we are not like our fathers.

Men think to mend their condition by a change of circumstances. They might as well hope to escape from their shadows.

Where nature is sovereign, there is no need of austerity and self-denial.