So long as there are earnest believers in the world, they will always wish to punish opinions, even if their judgment tells them it is unwise and their conscience that it is wrong.

The maxim of science is simply that of common sense-simple cases first; begin with seeing how the main force acts when there is as little as possible to impede it, and when you thoroughly comprehend that, add to it in succession the separate effects of each of the incumbering and interfering agencies.

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.

A democratic despotism is like a theocracy: it assumes its own correctness.

Men who do not make advances to women are apt to become victims to women who make advances to them.

You may talk of the tyranny of Nero and Tiberius; but the real tyranny is the tyranny of your next-door neighbor.

The cure for admiring the House of Lords is to go and look at it.