To carry the spirit of peace into war is a weak and cruel policy. When an extreme case calls for that remedy which is in its own nature most violent, and which, in such cases, is a remedy only because it is violent, it is idle to think of mitigating and diluting. Languid war can do nothing which negotiation or submission will do better: and to act on any other principle is, not to save blood and money, but to squander them.

Every political sect has its esoteric and its exoteric school--its abstract doctrines for the initiated; its visible symbols, its imposing forms, its mythological fables, for the vulgar.

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

The highest intellects, like the tops of mountains, are the first to catch and to reflect the dawn.

The business of the dramatist is to keep himself out of sight, and to let nothing appear but his characters. As soon as he attracts notice to his personal feelings, the illusion is broken.

In perseverance, in self command, in forethought, in all virtues which conduce to success in life, the Scots have never been surpassed.

That is the best government which desires to make the people happy, and knows how to make them happy.