Mankind are in the end always governed by superiority of intellectual faculties, and none are more sensible of this than the military profession. When, on my return from Italy, I assumed the dress of the Institute, and associated with men of science, I knew what I was doing: I was sure of not being misunderstood by the lowest drummer boy in the army.

Do you wish to find out the really sublime? Repeat the Lord's Prayer.

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

In politics... never retreat, never retract... never admit a mistake.

Liberty and equality are magical words.

For my part, it is not the mystery of the incarnation which I discover in religion, but the mystery of social order, which associates with heaven that idea of equality which prevents the rich from destroying the poor

Courage cannot be counterfeited. It is one virtue that escapes hypocrisy.