No man has come so near our definition of a constitutional statesman - the powers of a first-rate man and the creed of a second-rate man.

The apparent rulers of the English nation are like the most imposing personages of the a splendid procession; it is by them that the mob are influenced; it is they who the inspectors cheer. The real rulers are secreted in second hand carriages; no one cares for them or asks about them, but they are obeyed implicitly and unconsciously by reason of the splendour of those who eclipsed and preceded them.

The most intellectual of men are moved quite as much by the circumstances which they are used to as by their own will. The active voluntary part of a man is very small, and if it were not economized by a sleepy kind of habit, its results would be null.

Writers like teeth are divided into incisors and grinders.

No great work has ever been produced except after a long interval of still and musing meditation.

Conquest is the missionary of valor, and the hard impact of military virtues beats meanness out of the world.

A schoolmaster should have an atmosphere of awe, and walk wonderingly, as if he was amazed at being himself.