Every banker knows that if he has to prove that he is worthy of credit, however good may be his arguments, in fact his credit is gone: but what we have requires no proof.

An ambassador is not simply an agent; he is also a spectacle.

A Parliament is nothing less than a big meeting of more or less idle people.

But of all nations in the world the English are perhaps the least a nation of pure philosophers.

An inability to stay quiet is one of the conspicuous failings of mankind.

In every particular state of the world, those nations which are strongest tend to prevail over the others; and in certain marked peculiarities the strongest tend to be the best.

Capital must be propelled by self-interest; it cannot be enticed by benevolence.