A history in which every particular incident may be true may on the whole be false.

The effective strength of sects is not to be ascertained merely by counting heads.

The real object of the drama is the exhibition of human character.

He had a head which statuaries loved to copy, and a foot the deformity of which the beggars in the streets mimicked.

The desire of posthumous fame and the dread of posthumous reproach and execration are feelings from the influence of which scarcely any man is perfectly free, and which in many men are powerful and constant motives of action.

Beards in olden times, were the emblems of wisdom and piety.

A perfect historian must possess an imagination sufficiently powerful to make his narrative affecting and picturesque; yet he must control it so absolutely as to content himself with the materials which he finds, and to refrain from supplying deficiencies by additions of his own. He must be a profound and ingenious reasoner; yet he must possess sufficient self-command to abstain from casting his facts in the mould of his hypothesis.