The impenetrable stupidity of Prince George (son-in-law of James II) served his turn. It was his habit, when any news was told him, to exclaim, "Est il possible?"-"Is it possible?"

It is the age that forms the man, not the man that forms the age.

A Grecian history, perfectly written should be a complete record of the rise and progress of poetry, philosophy, and the arts.

The perfect disinterestedness and self-devotion of which men seem incapable, but which is sometimes found in women.

I would rather be poor in a cottage full of books than a king without the desire to read.

In order that he might rob a neighbour whom he had promised to defend, black men fought on the coast of Coromandel and red men scalped each other by the great lakes of North America.

History, is made up of the bad actions of extraordinary men and woman. All the most noted destroyers and deceivers of our species, all the founders of arbitrary governments and false religions have been extraordinary people; and nine tenths of the calamities that have befallen the human race had no other origin than the union of high intelligence with low desires.