Few of the many wise apothegms which have been uttered have prevented a single foolish action.

There are countries in which it would be as absurd to establish popular governments as to abolish all the restraints in a school or to unite all the strait-waistcoats in a madhouse.

An acre in Middlesex is better than a principality in Utopia.

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

We never could clearly understand how it is that egotism, so unpopular in conversation, should be so popular in writing.

A good constitution is infinitely better than the best despot.

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.