There is always a part of our being into which those who are dearer to us far than our own lives are yet unable to enter.

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

The essence of greatness is neglect of the self.

Philosophy goes no further than probabilities, and in every assertion keeps a doubt in reserve.

The best that we can do for one another is to exchange our thoughts freely; and that, after all, is about all.

Justice without wisdom is impossible.

English character and English freedom depend comparatively little on the form which the Constitution assumes at Westminster. A centralised democracy may be as tyrannical as an absolute monarch; and if the vigour of the nation is to continue unimpaired, each individual, each family, each district, must preserve as far as possible its independence, its self-completeness, its powers and its privilege to manage its own affairs and think its own thoughts.