A constitutional statesman is in general a man of common opinions and uncommon abilities.
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A great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.
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A Parliament is nothing less than a big meeting of more or less idle people.
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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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A schoolmaster should have an atmosphere of awe, and walk wonderingly, as if he was amazed at being himself.
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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 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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All the best stories in the world are but one story in reality - the story of escape. It is the only thing which interests us all and at all times, how to escape.
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An ambassador is not simply an agent; he is also a spectacle.
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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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An inability to stay quiet is one of the conspicuous failings of mankind.
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An influential member of parliament has not only to pay much money to become such, and to give time and labour, he has also to sacrifice his mind too - at least all the characteristics part of it that which is original and most his own.
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Conquest is the missionary of valor, and the hard impact of military virtues beats meanness out of the world.
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Dullness in matters of government is a good sign, and not a bad one - in particular, dullness in parliamentary government is a test of its excellence, an indication of its success.
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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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Honor sinks where commerce long prevails.
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I started out by believing God for a newer car than the one I was driving. I started out believing God for a nicer apartment than I had. Then I moved up.
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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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It is good to be without vices, but it is not good to be without temptations.
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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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Men who do not make advances to women are apt to become victims to women who make advances to them.
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No real English gentleman, in his secret soul, was ever sorry for the death of a political economist.
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One of the greatest pains to human nature is the pain of a new idea
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Open-mindedness should not be fostered because, as Scripture teaches, Truth is great and will prevail, nor because, as Milton suggests, Truth will always win in a free and open encounter. It should be fostered for its own sake.
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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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So long as war is the main business of nations, temporary despotism - despotism during the campaign - is indispensable.
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The being without an opinion is so painful to human nature that most people will leap to a hasty opinion rather than undergo it.
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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 cure for admiring the House of Lords is to go and look at it.
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The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.
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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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The most intellectual of men are moved quite as much by the circumstances which they are used to as by their own will. The active voluntary part of a man is very small, and if it were not economized by a sleepy kind of habit, its results would be null.
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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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The whole history of civilization is strewn with creeds and institutions which were invaluable at first, and deadly afterwards.
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We must not let daylight in upon the magic.
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What impresses men is not mind, but the result of mind.
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Woman absent is woman dead.
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Writers like teeth are divided into incisors and grinders.
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