Men of great conversational powers almost universally practise a sort of lively sophistry and exaggeration which deceives for the moment both themselves and their auditors.

As freedom is the only safeguard of governments, so are order and moderation generally necessary to preserve freedom.

The upper current of society presents no pertain criterion by which we can judge of the direction in which the under current flows.

The maxim, that governments ought to train the people in the way in which they should go, sounds well. But is there any reason for believing that a government is more likely to lead the people in the right way than the people to fall into the right way of themselves?

As civilization advances, poetry almost necessarily declines.

The perfect disinterestedness and self-devotion of which men seem incapable, but which is sometimes found in women.

Shakespeare has had neither equal nor second.