So long as war is the main business of nations, temporary despotism - despotism during the campaign - is indispensable.

Business is really more agreeable than pleasure; it interests the whole mind, the aggregate nature of man more continuously, and more deeply. But it does not look as if it did.

Stupidity is nature's favorite resource for preserving consistency of opinion.

An element of exaggeration clings to the popular judgment: great vices are made greater, great virtues greater also; interesting incidents are made more interesting, softer legends more soft.

A great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.

It has been said that England invented the phrase, 'Her Majesty's Opposition'; that it was the first government which made a criticism of administration as much a part of the polity as administration itself. This critical opposition is the consequence of cabinet government.

But of all nations in the world the English are perhaps the least a nation of pure philosophers.