"When did one man ever civilize a people?"

"The rise of the Dutch Republic must ever be regarded as one of the leading events of modern times."

"With the Germans, the sovereignty resided in the great assembly of the people."

"A good lawyer is a bad Christian."

"Wealth brings strength, strength confidence."

"For a century longer, Rome still retains its outward form, but the swarming nations are now in full career."

"The gigantic Gaul derided the Roman soldiers as a band of pigmies."

"The history of the Franks becomes, therefore, the history of the Netherlands."

"A new civilization was not to be improvised by a single mind."

"Give us the luxuries of life, and we will dispense with its necessaries."

"The sword - the first, for a time the only force: the force of iron."

"In the tenth century the old Batavian and later Roman forms have faded away."

"Thus again the Netherlands, for the first time since the fall of Rome, were united under one crown imperial. They had already been once united, in their slavery to Rome."

"History shows how feeble are barriers of paper."

"A terrible animal, indeed, is an unbridled woman."

"Enthusiasm could not supply the place of experience."

"The crusades made great improvement in the condition of the serfs."

"In Gaul were two orders, the nobility and the priesthood, while the people, says Caesar, were all slaves."

"A third force, developing itself more slowly, becomes even more potent than the rest: the power of gold."

"Thus the whole country was broken into many shreds and patches of sovereignty."

"The splendid empire of Charles the Fifth was erected upon the grave of liberty."

"A soil, exhausted by the long culture of Pagan empires, was to lie fallow for a still longer period."