There is an astonishing imagination, even in the science of mathematics. ... We repeat, there was far more imagination in the head of Archimedes than in that of Homer.

It is the poverty connected with our species which subordinates one man to another. It is not inequality which is the real misfortune, it is dependence.

Religion may be purified. This great work was begun two hundred years ago: but men can only bear light to come in upon them by degrees.

History is the recital of facts represented as true. Fable, on the other hand, is the recital of facts represented as fiction.

History in general is a collection of crimes, follies, and misfortunes among which we have now and then met with a few virtues, and some happy times.

The ancient Romans built their greatest masterpieces of architecture, their amphitheaters, for wild beasts to fight in.

Shakespeare is a drunken savage with some imagination whose plays please only in London and Canada.