History is indeed little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind.

Our work is the presentation of our capabilities.

The army is the only order of men sufficiently united to concur in the same sentiments, and powerful enough to impose them on the rest of their fellow-citizens; but the temper of soldiers, habituated at...

War, in its fairest form, implies a perpetual violation of humanity and justice.

As long as mankind shall continue to bestow more liberal applause on their destroyers than on their benefactors, the thirst of military glory will ever be the vice of the most exalted characters

A state of scepticism and suspense may amuse a few inquisitive minds. But the practice of superstition is so congenial to the multitude, that if they are forcibly awakened, they still regret the loss of...

The pathetic almost always consists in the detail of little events.

Truth, naked, unblushing truth, the first virtue of all serious history, must be the sole recommendation of this personal narrative.

I never make the mistake of arguing with people for whose opinions I have no respect.

My early and invincible love of reading–I would not exchange for the treasures of India.

My English text is chaste, and all licentious passages are left in the decent obscurity of a learned language.

The style of an author should be the image of his mind, but the choice and command of language is the fruit of exercise.

History is little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind

Style is the image of character.

Conversation enriches the understanding, but solitude is the school of genius

Books are those faithful mirrors that reflect to our mind the minds of sages and heroes.

I was never less alone than when by myself

Of the three Popes, John the Twenty-third was the first victim; he fled and was brought back a prisoner; the most scandalous charges were suppressed; the Vicar of Christ was only accused of piracy, murder,...

The clergy successfully preached the doctrines of patience and pusillanimity; the active virtues of society were discouraged; and the last remains of a military spirit were buried in the cloister: a large portion of public...

Decent easy men, who supinely enjoyed the gifts of the founder.

Beauty is an outward gift which is seldom despised, except by those to whom it has been refused

During the age of Christ, of his apostles, and of their first disciples, the doctrine which they preached was confirmed by innumerable prodigies. The lame walked, the blind saw, the sick were healed, the dead...

Every man who rises above the common level has received two educations: the first from his teachers; the second, more personal and important, from himself

The theologians may indulge the pleasing task of describing religion as she descended from Heaven, arrayed in her native purity. A more melancholy duty is imposed on the historian [read: journalist] He must discover the...

But the power of instruction is seldom of much efficacy, except in those happy dispositions where it is almost superfluous

I am indeed rich, since my income is superior to my expenses, and my expense is equal to my wishes.

Let us read with method, and propose to ourselves an end to which our studies may point. The use of reading is to aid us in thinking.

The names of Seneca, of the elder and the younger Pliny, of Tacitus, of Plutarch, of Galen, of the slave Epictetus, and of the emperor Marcus Antoninus, adorn the age in which they flourished, and...

Hope, the best comfort of our imperfect condition.

I sighed as a lover, I obeyed as a son.

In the second century of the Christian era, the empire of Rome comprehended the fairest part of the earth, and the most civilized portion of mankind

It has always been my practice to cast a long paragraph in a single mould, to try it by my ear, to deposit it in my memory, but to suspend the action of the pen...

A heart to resolve, a head to contrive, and a hand to execute.

Unprovided with original learning, unformed in the habits of thinking, unskilled in the arts of composition, I resolved to write a book.

Corruption, the most infallible symptom of constitutional liberty.

The end comes when we no longer talk with ourselves. It is the end of genuine thinking and the beginning of the final loneliness.

Our sympathy is cold to the relation of distant misery

It has been calculated by the ablest politicians that no State, without becoming soon exhausted, can maintain above the hundredth part of its members in arms and idleness.

My early and invincible love of reading I would not exchange for all the riches of India.

Edward Gibbon, in his classic work on the fall of the Roman Empire, describes the Roman era’s declension as a place where “bizarreness masqueraded as creativity.

Crowds without company, and dissipation without pleasure.

The wind and the waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators

The author himself is the best judge of his own performance; none has so deeply meditated on the subject; none is so sincerely interested in the event.

I was never less alone than when by myself.

The laws of probability, so true in general, so fallacious in particular.

Where error is irreparable, repentance is useless.

In every deed of mischief he [Comenus] had a heart to resolve, a head to contrive, and a hand to execute.

The urgent consideration of the public safety may undoubtedly authorize the violation of every positive law. How far that or any other consideration may operate to dissolve the natural obligations of humanity and justice, is...

The ecclesiastical writers, who, in the heat of religious faction, are apt to despise the profane virtues of sincerity and moderation.

The winds and the waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators.