In these days the invention of printing, and the diffusion of knowledge, render historical calumnies a little less dangerous: truth will always prevail in the long run, but how slow its progress!

The practice of law sharpens the mind by making it narrow.

Ability is nothing without opportunity.

Whatever misanthropists may say, ingrates and the perverse are exceptions in the human species.

Fanaticism must be put to sleep before it can be eradicated.

To write history one must be more than a man, since the author who holds the pen of this great justiciary must be free from all preoccupation of interest or vanity.

Those who have changed the universe have never done it by changing officials, but always by inspiring the people.