Every revolution was first a thought in one man's mind.

There can be no excess to love, none to knowledge, none to beauty.

I wish to speak with all respect of persons, but sometimes I must pinch myself to keep awake, and preserve the due decorum. They melt so fast into each other, that they are like grass and trees, and it needs an effort to treat them as individuals.

A great man will find a great subject, or which is the same thing, make any subject great.

Sunshine cannot bleach the snow, Nor time unmake what poets know

The student is to read history actively and not passively.

When summer opens, I see how fast it matures, and fear it will be short; but after the heats of July and August, I am reconciled, like one who has had his swing, to the cool of autumn.