A morsel of genuine history is a thing so rare as to be always valuable.

I set out on this ground, which I suppose to be self evident, "that the earth belongs in usufruct to the living": that the dead have neither powers nor rights over it.

He who knows nothing is closer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors.

Such is the moral construction of the world that no national crime passes unpunished in the long run... Were present oppressors to reflect on the same truth, they would spare to their own countries the penalties on their present wrongs which will be inflicted on them in future times. The seeds of hatred and revenge which they sow with a large hand will not fail to produce their fruits in time. Like their brother robbers on the highway, they suppose the escape of the moment a final escape and deem infamy and future risk countervailed by present gain.

letters are not the first, but the last step in the progression from barbarism to civilisation.

There is no habit you will value so much as that of walking far without fatigue.

An honest heart being the first blessing, a knowing head is the second.