Almost all that has been done for the good of the people has been done since the right lost the monopoly of power, since the rights of property were … - John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton

In Italy, where the life of a heretic was cheap, their wholesale destruction was confessed a highly politic and ingenious act. Even the sage Venetians were constrained to celebrate it with a procession. The Grand Duke Cosmo had pointed out two years before that an insidious peace would afford excellent opportunities of extinguishing Protestantism; and he derived inexpressible consolation from the heroic enterprise.

The lesson of modern history—that Religions enjoy (are endowed with) the prerogative of perpetual youth while philosophies seldom outlast a generation.

[W]e are not so much concerned this evening with the dead letter of edicts and of statutes as with the living thoughts of men.