The inquiry in England is not whether a man has talents and genius, but whether he is passive and polite and a virtuous ass and obedient to noblemen's opinions in art and science. If he is, he is a good man. If not, he must be starved.

We owe respect to the living. To the dead we owe only truth.

A celebrated people lose dignity upon a closer view.

I shall be glad when you have strangled the invincible respectability that dogs your steps.

Reverence is one of the signs of strength, irreverence one of the surest indications of weakness. No man will rise high who jeers at sacred things. The fine loyalties of life must be reverenced or they will be fore sworn in the day of trial.

Nothing is more despicable than respect based on fear.

Honest people will respect us for our merit: the public, for our luck.

Where there is reverence there is fear, but there is not reverence everywhere that there is fear, because fear presumably has a wider extension than reverence.

Respect for ourselves guides our morals, respect for others guides our manners.

Respect for ones parents is the highest duty of civil life.