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.
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One of the greatest pains to human nature is the pain of a new idea.
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A bureaucracy is sure to think that its duty is to augment official power, official business, or official members, rather than to leave free the energies of mankind; it overdoes the quantity of government, as well as impairs its quality. The truth is, that a skilled bureaucracy is, though it boasts of an appearance of science, quite inconsistent with the true principles of the art of business.
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History is strewn with the wrecks of nations which have gained a little progressiveness at the cost of a great deal of hard manliness, and have thus prepared themselves for destruction as soon as the movements of the world gave a chance for it.
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The whole history of civilization is strewn with creeds and institutions which were invaluable at first, and deadly afterwards.
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The Sovereign has, under a constitutional monarchy such as ours, three rights -- the right to be consulted, the right to encourage, the right to warn. And a king of great sense and sagacity would want no others.
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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.
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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.
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A constitutional statesman is in general a man of common opinions and uncommon abilities.
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Poverty is an anomaly to rich people. It is very difficult to make out why people who want dinner do not ring the bell.
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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.
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Life is a school of probability.
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Nothing is more unpleasant that a virtuous person with a mean mind.
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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.
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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.
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The reason why so few good books are written is that so few people who can write know anything.
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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.
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A princely marriage is the brilliant edition of a universal fact, and, as such, it rivets mankind.
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An inability to stay quiet is one of the most conspicuous failings of mankind.
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Strong beliefs win strong men, and then make them stronger.
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The habit of common and continuous speech is a symptom of mental deficiency.
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The cure for admiring the house of lords is to go and look at it.
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We must not let daylight in upon the magic.
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An ambassador is not simply an agent; he is also a spectacle.
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A man's mother is his misfortune, but his wife is his fault.
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The greatest mistake is trying to be more agreeable than you can be.
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The reason that there are so few good books written is that so few people who write know anything.
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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.
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The great pleasure in life is doing what others say you cannot.
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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.
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