Politeness has been well defined as benevolence in small things.

At present, the novels which we owe to English ladies form no small part of the literary glory of our country. No class of works is more honorably distinguished for fine observation, by grace, by delicate wit, by pure moral feeling.

A dominant religion is never ascetic.

More sinners are cursed at not because we despise their sins but because we envy their success at sinning.

No particular man is necessary to the state. We may depend on it that, if we provide the country with popular institutions, those institutions will provide it with great men.

In taste and imagination, in the graces of style, in the arts of persuasion, in the magnificence of public works, the ancients were at least our equals.

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