A history that should pursue all the subtle threads from end to end might be eminently valuable, but not as a tribute to peace and conciliation.

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

Self-preservation and self-denial: the basis of all political economy.

Government by idea tends to take in everything, to make the whole of society obedient to the idea. Spaces not so governed are unconquered, beyond the border, unconverted, a future danger.

Though oppression may give rise to violent and repeated outbreaks, like the convulsions of a man in pain, it cannot mature a settled purpose and plan of regeneration, unless a new notion of happiness is joined to the sense of present evil.

Writers the most learned, the most accurate in details, and the soundest in tendency, frequently fall into a habit which can neither be cured nor pardoned,-the habit of making history into the proof of their theories.

In England Parliament is above the law. In America the law is above Congress.