History has to be rewritten because history is the selection of those threads of causes or antecedents that we are interested in.

The common law is not a brooding omnipresence in the sky, but the articulate voice of some sovereign or quasi sovereign that can be identified; although some decisions with which I have disagreed seem to me to have forgotten the fact.

A new and valid idea is worth more than a regiment and fewer men can furnish the former than command the latter.

There is one gratification an old author can afford a certain class of critics; that namely, of comparing him as he is with what he was. It is a pleasure to mediocrity to have its superiors brought within range.

Imitation is a necessity of human nature.

We have been cocksure of many things that were not so.

The riders in a race do not stop when they reach the goal. There is a little finishing canter before coming to a standstill. There is time to hear the kind voices of friends and say to oneself, The work is done.