Properly speaking, history is nothing but the crimes and misfortunes of the human race.

Properly speaking, history is nothing but the crimes and misfortunes of the human race.

There is not less wit nor invention in applying rightly a thought one finds in a book, than in being the first author of that thought. Cardinal du Perron has been heard to say that the happy application of a verse of Virgil has deserved a talent.

It is thus tolerance that is the source of peace, and intolerance that is the source of disorder and squabbling.

If an historian were to relate truthfully all the crimes, weaknesses, and disorders of mankind, his readers would take his work for satire rather than for history.

The antiquity and general acceptance of an opinion is not assurance of its truth.

I mention this only to shew that the citations of the most judicious authors frequently deceive us, and consequently that prudence obliges us to examine quotations, by whomsoever alleged.