There were gentlemen and there were seamen in the navy of Charles the Second. But the seamen were not gentlemen; and the gentlemen were not seamen.

The best portraits are those in which there is a slight mixture of caricature.

In Plato's opinion, man was made for philosophy; in Bacon's opinion, philosophy was made for man.

The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out.

And how can man die better than facing fearful odds, for the ashes of his fathers, and the temples of his Gods?

Logicians may reason about abstractions. But the great mass of men must have images. The strong tendency of the multitude in all ages and nations to idolatry can be explained on no other principle.

Time advances: facts accumulate; doubts arise. Faint glimpses of truth begin to appear, and shine more and more unto the perfect day. The highest intellects, like the tops of mountains, are the first to catch and to reflect the dawn. They are bright, while the level below is still in darkness. But soon the light, which at first illuminated only the loftiest eminences, descends on the plain, and penetrates to the deepest valley. First come hints, then fragments of systems, then defective systems, then complete and harmonious systems. The sound opinion, held for a time by one bold speculator, becomes the opinion of a small minority, of a strong minority, of a majority of mankind. Thus, the great progress goes on.

The object of oratory alone in not truth, but persuasion.

We must judge a government by its general tendencies and not by its happy accidents.

He had a wonderful talent for packing thought close, and rendering it portable.