The doctrine which, from the very first origin of religious dissensions, has been held by bigots of all sects, when condensed into a few words and stripped of rhetorical disguise, is simply this: I am in the right, and you are in the wrong. When you are the stronger, you ought to tolerate me; for it is your duty to tolerate truth. But when I am the stronger I shall persecute you; for it is my duty to persecute error.

I have long been convinced that institutions purely democratic must, sooner or later, destroy liberty or civilization, or both.

It is possible to be below flattery as well as above it. One who trusts nobody will not trust sycophants. One who does not value real glory will not value its counterfeit.

The Puritan hated bear-baiting, not because it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave pleasure to the spectators.

The best portraits are those in which there is a slight mixture of caricature.

Those who seem to load the public taste are, in general, merely outrunning it in the direction which it is spontaneously pursuing.

Ye diners out from whom we guard our spoons.