The reluctant obedience of distant provinces generally costs more than it - The Territory is worth. Empires which branch out widely are often more flourishing for a little timely pruning.

The passages in which Milton has alluded to his own circumstances are perhaps read more frequently, and with more interest, than any other lines in his poems.

She thoroughly understands what no other Church has ever understood, how to deal with enthusiasts.

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

Mere negation, mere Epicurean infidelity, as Lord Bacon most justly observes, has never disturbed the peace of the world. It furnishes no motive for action; it inspires no enthusiasm; it has no missionaries, no crusades, no martyrs.

Such night in England ne'er had been, nor ne'er again shall be.

Grief, which disposes gentle natures to retirement, to inaction, and to meditation, only makes restless spirits more restless.