Every great example of punishment has in it some injustice, but the suffering individual is compensated by the public good.

Formerly we suffered from crimes; now we suffer from laws.

The most detestable race of enemies are flatterers.

All ancient history was written with a moral object; the ethical interest predominates almost to the exclusion of all others.

This I regard as history's highest function, to let no worthy action be uncommemorated, and to hold out the reprobation of posterity as a terror to evil words and deeds.

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.

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