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.

The whole history of civilization is strewn with creeds and institutions which were invaluable at first, and deadly afterwards

The purse strings tie us to our kind.

One of the greatest pains to human nature is the pain of a new idea. It...makes you think that after all, your favorite notions may be wrong, your firmest beliefs ill-founded....Naturally, therefore, common men hate a new idea, and are disposed more or less to ill-treat the original man who brings it.

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

In the faculty of writing nonsense, stupidity is no match for genius.

We must not let daylight in upon the magic.