An empire is an immense egotism.

The common experience is, that the man fits himself as well as he can to the customary details of that work or trade he falls into, and tends it as a dog turns a spit. Then he is part of the machine he moves; the man is lost.

Those who listened to Lord Chatham felt that there was something finer in the man, than anything which he said.

I wish to write such rhymes as shall not suggest a restraint, but contrariwise the wildest freedom.

The world always had the same bankrupt look, to foregoing ages as to us.

Time is indeed the theater and seat of illusions; nothing is so ductile and elastic. The mind stretches an hour to a century, and dwarfs an age to an hour.

There are geniuses in trade as well as in war, or the state, or letters; and the reason why this or that man is fortunate is not to be told. It lies in the man: that is all anybody can tell you about it.