But the world was also so constructed, owing to the nature of the Maker of it, that superior strength was found in the long run to lie with those who had the right on their side.

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

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.

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

Men are made by nature unequal. It is vain, therefore, to treat them as if they were equal.

The superstition of science scoffs at the superstition of faith.

The essence of true nobility is neglect of self. Let the thought of self pass in, and the beauty of a great action is gone, like the bloom from a soiled flower.