Sublime

The first and most striking feature is a stupidity that rises into a sort of ghastly innocence.

The lovers of liberty thought they were leaving it unlimited, when they were only leaving it undefined.

What is perfectly plain is this: that mankind have hitherto held the bond between man and woman so sacred, and the effect of it on the children so incalculable, that they have always admired the maintenance of honour more than the maintenance of safety.

A man dying for his country does not talk as if local preferences could change.

In one sense things can only be equal if they are entirely different.

You cannot deny that it is perfectly possible that tomorrow morning, in Ireland or in Italy, there might appear a man not only as good but good in exactly the same way as St. Francis of Assisi.

It always takes a considerable time to see the simple and central fact about anything.

It is useless for us to attempt to imagine Dickens and his life unless we are able at least to imagine this old atmosphere of a democratic optimism—a confidence in common men.