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.

A princely marriage is the brilliant edition of a universal fact, and, as such, it rivets mankind.

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.

The whole history of civilization is strewn with creeds and institutions which were invaluable at first, and deadly afterwards

The apparent rulers of the English nation are like the most imposing personages of the a splendid procession; it is by them that the mob are influenced; it is they who the inspectors cheer. The real rulers are secreted in second hand carriages; no one cares for them or asks about them, but they are obeyed implicitly and unconsciously by reason of the splendour of those who eclipsed and preceded them.

Persecution in intellectual countries produces a superficial conformity, but also underneath an intense, incessant, implacable doubt.

No real English gentleman, in his secret soul, was ever sorry for the death of a political economist.