In every particular state of the world, those nations which are strongest tend to prevail over the others; and in certain marked peculiarities the strongest tend to be the best.

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.

Royalty is a government in which the attention of the nation is concentrated on one person doing interesting actions.

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

In my youth I hoped to do great things; now I shall be satisfied to get through without scandal.

We think of Euclid as of fine ice; we admire Newton as we admire the peak of Teneriffe. Even the intensest labors, the most remote triumphs of the abstract intellect, seem to carry us into a region different from our own-to be in a terra incognita of pure reasoning, to cast a chill on human glory.

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.