Under a Presidential government, a nation has, except at the electing moment, no influence; it has not the ballot-box before it; its virtue is gone, and it must wait till its instant of despotism again returns.

The greatest mistake is trying to be more agreeable than you can be.

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

All people are most credulous when they are most happy.

A man's mother is his misfortune, but his wife is his fault.

Credit means that a certain confidence is given, and a certain trust reposed. Is that trust justified? And is that confidence wise? These are the cardinal questions. To put it more simply credit is a set of promises to pay; will those promises be kept?

A severe though not unfriendly critic of our institutions said that the cure for admiring the House of Lords was to go and look at it.