The great cause of revolutions is this, that while nations move onward, constitutions stand still.

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

I have seen the hippopotamus, both asleep and awake; and I can assure you that, awake or asleep, he is the ugliest of the works of God.

Every sect clamors for toleration when it is down.

The conformation of his mind was such that whatever was little seemed to him great, and whatever was great seemed to him little.

Our judgment ripens; our imagination decays. We cannot at once enjoy the flowers of the Spring of life and the fruits of its Autumn.

The most beautiful object in the world, it will be allowed, is a beautiful woman.