The first of earthly blessings, independence.

The best and most important part of every man's education is that which he gives himself.

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 should be to the political economist a wellspring of experience and wisdom.

The Roman government appeared every day less formidable to its enemies, more odious and oppressive to its subjects.

History, which undertakes to record the transactions of the past, for the instruction of future ages, would ill deserve that honourable office if she condescended to plead the cause of tyrants, or to justify the maxims of persecution.

There is more pleasure to building castles in the air than on the ground.

But the sages of Greece and Rome turned aside from the awful spectacle, and, pursuing the ordinary occupations of life and study, appeared unconscious of any alterations in the moral of physical government of the world.

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.

Bad roads and indifferent inns, ... the continual converse one is obliged to have with the vilest part of mankind -- innkeepers, post-masters, and custom house officers.

Such events may be disbelieved or disregarded; but the charity of a bishop, Acacius of Amida, whose name might have dignified the saintly calendar, shall not be lost in oblivion.

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

In a distant age and climate, the tragic scene of the death of Hosein will awaken the sympathy of the coldest reader.

Of the various forms of government which have prevailed in the world, an hereditary monarchy seems to present the fairest scope for ridicule.

I darted a contemptuous look at the stately models of superstition.

The emperor of the West, the feeble and dissolute Valentinian, had reached his thirty-fifth year without attaining the age of reason or courage.

I must reluctantly observe that two causes, the abbreviation of time, and the failure of hope, will always tinge with a browner shade the evening of life.

To a philosophic eye, the vices of the clergy are far less dangerous than their virtues.

A philosopher may deplore the eternal discords of the human race, but he will confess, that the desire of spoil is a more rational provocation than the vanity of conquest.

Passion, interest, or caprice, suggested daily motives for the dissolution of marriage; a word, a sign, a message, a letter, the mandate of a freedman, declared the separation; the most tender of human connections was degraded to a transient society of profit or pleasure.