“Following Emporer Nero’s command, “Let the Christians be exterminated!:” . . . they [the Christians] were made the subjects of sport; they were covered with the hides of wild beasts and worried to death by dogs, or nailed to crosses or set fire to, and when the day waned, burned to serve for the evening lights.”

If you would know who controls you see who you may not criticise.

The worst crimes were dared by a few, willed by more and tolerated by all.

Nothing mortal is so unstable and subject to change as power which has no foundation.

The grove is the centre of their whole religion. It is regarded as the cradle of the race and the dwelling-place of the supreme god to whom all things are subject and obedient.

Everything unknown is magnified. [Lat., Omne ignotum pro magnifico est.]

Abuse if you slight it, will gradually die away; but if you show yourself irritated, you will be thought to have deserved it.

The principal office of history I take to be this: to prevent virtuous actions from being forgotten, and that evil words and deeds should fear an infamous reputation with posterity.

Many who seem to be struggling with adversity are happy; many, amid great affluence, are utterly miserable.

Such being the happiness of the times, that you may think as you wish, and speak as you think.

Viewed from a distance, everything is beautiful.

In all things there is a law of cycles.

Forethought and prudence are the proper qualities of a leader. [Lat., Ratio et consilium, propriae ducis artes.]

[The Jews have] an attitude of hostility and hatred towards all others.

The Romans brought devestation, but they called it peace.

Reason and judgment are the qualities of a leader.

In a state where corruption abounds, laws must be very numerous.

To experience true life, we must continue the Christian journey the same way we began it – by faith.

I was very rebellious, but my family was strict Christians – they would ask us, “What’s the shortest verse in the Bible?” and I was the one who always said “John 11:35” straightaway. It stayed with me, the Bible has stayed with me.

Poverty is from the devil and that God wants all Christians prosperous.

I am neither Christian enough nor charitable enough to like anybody just because he is alive and breathing. I want people to interest or amuse me. I want them fascinating and witty or so dul as to be different.

A Christian cannot fail of being a republican.

I think confronted with the modern world or with the rest of the world, I think people are becoming aware that the Western and Islamic civilizations have more in common than apart.

Nothing spoils human nature more than false zeal. The good nature of a heathen is more God-like than the furious zeal of a Christian.

Refugees of all kinds were constantly fleeing from Christendom to the Islamic lands. Jews of course and Muslims of course, but even some Christians and the movement of refugees went overwhelmingly that way.