"Almost everything that is great has been done by youth."

"[The Irish] hate our order, our civilization, our enterprising industry, our pure religion. This wild, reckless, indolent, uncertain and superstitious race have no sympathy with the English character.…"

"Books are fatal: they are the curse of the human race. Nine-tenths of existing books are nonsense, and the clever books are the refutation of that nonsense. The greatest misfortune that ever befell ma…"

"Governments do not govern, but merely control the machinery of government, being themselves controlled by the hidden hand."

"The European talks of progress because by the aid of a few scientific discoveries he has established a society which has mistaken comfort for civilisation."