Men are never so likely to settle a question rightly as when they discuss it freely.

Thus our democracy was from an early period the most aristocratic, and our aristocracy the most democratic.

Logicians may reason about abstractions. But the great mass of men must have images. The strong tendency of the multitude in all ages and nations to idolatry can be explained on no other principle.

The history of nations, in the sense in which I use the word, is often best studied in works not professedly historical.

The study of the properties of numbers, Plato tells us, habituates the mind to the contemplation of pure truth, and raises us above the material universe. He would have his disciples apply themselves to this study, not that they may be able to buy or sell, not that they may qualify themselves to be shopkeepers or travelling merchants, but that they may learn to withdraw their minds from the ever-shifting spectacle of this visible and tangible world, and to fix them on the immutable essences of things.

Reform, that we may preserve.

The Saviour of mankind Himself, in whose blameless life malice could find no act to impeach, has been called in question for words spoken.