He had done that which could never be forgiven; he was in the grasp of one who never forgave.

A perfect historian must possess an imagination sufficiently powerful to make his narrative affecting and picturesque; yet he must control it so absolutely as to content himself with the materials which he finds, and to refrain from supplying deficiencies by additions of his own. He must be a profound and ingenious reasoner; yet he must possess sufficient self-command to abstain from casting his facts in the mould of his hypothesis.

There was, it is said, a criminal in Italy who was suffered to make his choice between Guicciardini and the galleys. He chose the history. But the war of Pisa was too much for him; he changed his mind, and went to the oars.

Free trade, one of the greatest blessings which a government can confer on a people, is in almost every country unpopular.

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

The business of the dramatist is to keep himself out of sight, and to let nothing appear but his characters. As soon as he attracts notice to his personal feelings, the illusion is broken.

A history in which every particular incident may be true may on the whole be false.