The wisdom of divine rule appears not in the perfection but in the improvement of the world... History is the true demonstration of Religion.

I mourn for the stake which was lost at Richmond more deeply than I rejoice over that which was saved at Waterloo.

Save for the wild force of Nature, nothing moves in this world that is not Greek in its origin.

At all times sincere friends of freedom have been rare, and its triumphs have been due to minorities, that have prevailed by associating themselves with auxiliaries whose objects often differed from their own; and this association, which is always dangerous, has sometimes been disastrous.

The possession of unlimited power corrodes the conscience, hardens the heart, and confounds the understanding.

It is they [men of science] who hold the secret of the mysterious property of the mind by which error ministers to truth, and truth slowly but irrevocably prevails. Theirs is the logic of discovery, the demonstration of the advance of knowledge and the development of ideas, which as the earthly wants and passions of men remain almost unchanged, are the charter of progress, and the vital spark in history.

Those who have more power are liable to sin more; no theorem in geometry is more certain than this.