The end of government is the happiness of the people.

No war ought ever to be undertaken but under circumstances which render all intercourse of courtesy between the combatants impossible. It is a bad thing that men should hate each other; but it is far worse that they should contract the habit of cutting one another's throats without hatred. War is never lenient but where it is wanton; when men are compelled to fight in self-defence, they must hate and avenge: this may be bad; but it is human nature.

The merit of poetry, in its wildest forms, still consists in its truth-truth conveyed to the understanding, not directly by the words, but circuitously by means of imaginative associations, which serve as its conductors.

Thus our democracy was from an early period the most aristocratic, and our aristocracy the most democratic.

I shall cheerfully bear the reproach of having descended below the dignity of history.

Genius is subject to the same laws which regulate the production of cotton and molasses.

The highest eulogy which can be pronounced on the Revolution of 1688 is this that this was our last Revolution.