The principle of the Inquisition was murderous. . . . The popes were not only murderers in the great style, but they also made murder a legal basis of the Christian Church and a condition of salvation.

If some great catastrophe is not announced every morning, we feel a certain void. Nothing in the paper today, we sigh.

I cannot accept your canon that we are to judge Pope and King unlike other men, with a favorable presumption that they do no wrong. If there is any presumption, it is the other way against holders of power...power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

The passion for power over others can never cease to threaten mankind, and is always sure of finding new and unforseen allies in continuing its martyrology.

Everybody likes to get as much power as circumstances allow, and nobody will vote for a self-denying ordinance.

Remember that one touch of ill-nature makes the whole world kin.

The mills of God grind slowly.