Wit and valor are qualities that are more easily ascertained than virtue, or the love of wisdom. - Edward Gibbon

It has been calculated by the ablest politicians that no State, without being soon exhausted, can maintain above the hundredth part of its members in arms and idleness.

the most sublime efforts of philosophy can extend no farther than feebly to point out the desire, the hope, or, at most, the probability, of a future state, there is nothing, except a divine revelation, that can ascertain the existence, and describe the condition of the invisible country which is destined to receive the souls of men after their separation from the body.

Active valour may often be the present of nature; but such patient diligence can be the fruit only of habit and discipline.