Progress would not have been the rarity it is if the early food had not been the late poison.

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

History is strewn with the wrecks of nations which have gained a little progressiveness at the cost of a great deal of hard manliness, and have thus prepared themselves for destruction as soon as the movements of the world have a chance for it.

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

The best history is but like the art of Rembrandt; it casts a vivid light on certain selected causes, on those which were best and greatest; it leaves all the rest in shadow and unseen.

Writers like teeth are divided into incisors and grinders.

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