It is the age that forms the man, not the man that forms the age.

The end of government is the happiness of the people.

The history of nations, in the sense in which I use the word, is often best studied in works not professedly historical.

The ascendency of the sacerdotal order was long the ascendency which naturally and properly belonged to intellectual superiority.

The opinion of the great body of the reading public is very materially influenced even by the unsupported assertions of those who assume a right to criticize.

A vice sanctioned by the general opinion is merely a vice. The evil terminates in itself. A vice condemned by the general opinion produces a pernicious effect on the whole character. The former is a local malady; the latter, constitutional taint. When the reputation of the offender is lost, he too often flings the remainder of his virtue after it in despair.

Knowledge advances by steps, and not by leaps.