It has been said that England invented the phrase, 'Her Majesty's Opposition'; that it was the first government which made a criticism of administration as much a part of the polity as administration itself. This critical opposition is the consequence of cabinet government.

The business of banking ought to be simple. If it is hard it is wrong. The only securities which a banker, using money that he may be asked at short notice to repay, ought to touch, are those which are easily saleable and easily intelligible.

To a great experience one thing is essential, an experiencing nature.

So long as war is the main business of nations, temporary despotism - despotism during the campaign - is indispensable.

A great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.

A constitutional statesman is in general a man of common opinions and uncommon abilities.

The most melancholy of human reflections, perhaps, is that, on the whole, it is a question whether the benevolence of mankind does most good or harm.