Not only does a bureaucracy tend to under-government in point of quality; it tends to over-government in point of quantity.

The reason why so few good books are written is, that so few people that can write know anything. In general an author has always lived in a room, has read books, has cultivated science, is acquainted with the style and sentiments of the best authors, but he is out of the way of employing his own eyes and ears. He has nothing to hear and nothing to see. His life is a vacuum.

The being without an opinion is so painful to human nature that most people will leap to a hasty opinion rather than undergo it.

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

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.

If you have to prove you are worthy of credit, your credit is already gone.

The Sovereign has, under a constitutional monarchy such as ours, three rights - the right to be consulted, the right to encourage, the right to warn. And a king of great sense and sagacity would want no others.