The love of dominion is the most engrossing passion.

This I hold to be the chief office of history, to rescue virtuous actions from the oblivion to which a want of records would consign them, and that men should feel a dread of being considered infamous in the opinions of posterity, from their depraved expressions and base actions.

In seasons of tumult and discord bad men have most power; mental and moral excellence require peace and quietness.

It is more reverent to believe in the works of the Deity than to comprehend them.

They have plundered the world, stripping naked the land in their hunger… they are driven by greed, if their enemy be rich; by ambition, if poor… They ravage, they slaughter, they seize by false pretenses, and all of this they hail as the construction of empire. And when in their wake nothing remains but a desert, they call that peace.

Christianity is a pestilent superstition.

The repose of nations cannot be secure without arms, armies cannot be maintained without pay, nor can the pay be produced without taxes