Office of itself does much to equalize politicians. It by no means brings all characters to a level; but it does bring high characters down and low characters up towards a common standard.

A Grecian history, perfectly written should be a complete record of the rise and progress of poetry, philosophy, and the arts.

History distinguishes what is accidental and transitory in human nature from what is essential and immutable.

There were gentlemen and there were seamen in the navy of Charles the Second. But the seamen were not gentlemen; and the gentlemen were not seamen.

Sense can support herself handsomely in most countries on some eighteen pence a day; but for fantasy, planets and solar systems, will not suffice.

In employing fiction to make truth clear and goodness attractive, we are only following the example which every Christian ought to propose to himself.

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