“We must not let daylight in upon the magic.”
“When great questions end, little parties begin.”
“What impresses men is not mind, but the result of mind.”
“Writers like teeth are divided into incisors and grinders.”
“Strong beliefs win strong men, and then make them stronger.”
“An ambassador is not simply an agent; he is also a spectacle.”
“A great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.”
“The cure for admiring the house of lords is to go and look at it.”
“One of the greatest pains to human nature is the pain of a new idea.”
“An inability to stay quiet is one of the most conspicuous failings of mankind.”
“A constitutional statesman is in general a man of common opinions and uncommon abilities.”
“Progress would not have been the rarity it is if the early food had not been the late poison.”
“A princely marriage is the brilliant edition of a universal fact, and, as such, it rivets mankind.”
“Men who do not make advances to women are apt to become victims to women who make advances to them.”
“A schoolmaster should have an atmosphere of awe, and walk wonderingly, as if he was amazed at being himself.”
“Conquest is the missionary of valor, and the hard impact of military virtues beats meanness out of the world.”
“A family on the throne is an interesting idea. It brings down the pride of sovereignty to the level of petty life.”
“Royalty is a government in which the attention of the nation is concentrated on one person doing interesting actions.”
“Poverty is an anomaly to rich people. It is very difficult to make out why people who want dinner do not ring the bell.”
“So long as war is the main business of nations, temporary despotism -- despotism during the campaign -- is indispensable.”
“The whole history of civilization is strewn with creeds and institutions which were invaluable at first, and deadly afterwards.”
“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.”
“It is often said that men are ruled by their imaginations; but it would be truer to say they are governed by the weakness of their imaginations.”
“The habit of common and continuous speech is a symptom of mental deficiency. It proceeds from not knowing what is going on in other people's minds.”
“A slight daily unconscious luxury is hardly ever wanting to the dwellers in civilization; like the gentle air of a genial climate, it is a perpetual minute enjoyment.”
“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.”
“Public opinion is a permeating influence, and it exacts obedience to itself; it requires us to drink other men's thoughts, to speak other men's words, to follow other men's habits.”
“The best reason why Monarchy is a strong government is, that it is an intelligible government. The mass of mankind understand it, and they hardly anywhere in the world understand any other.”
“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.”
“Under a Presidential government, a nation has, except at the electing moment, no influence; it has not the ballot-box before it; its virtue is gone, and it must wait till its instant of despotism again returns.”