The moral system of the universe is like a document written in alternate ciphers, which change from line to line.

The practical effect of a belief is the real test of its soundness. Where we find a heroic life appearing as the uniform fruit of a particular mode of opinion, it is childish to argue in the face of fact that the result ought to have been different.

Nature is not a partisan, but out of her ample treasue house she produces children in infinite variety, of which she is equally the mother, and disowns none of them.

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

We enter the world alone, we leave it alone.

High original genius is always ridiculed on its first appearance; most of all by those who have won themselves the highest reputation in working on the established lines. Genius only commands recognition when it has created the taste which is to appreciate it.

The superstition of science scoffs at the superstition of faith.