Andrew Dickson White

its most significant feature—that which went to make it the herald of a new epoch—was that it took its stand upon the inalienable rights of mankind

it could not be taken away by any power whatever.

was based on a fundamental law of humanity

the right of nations to communicate

a demonstration that no such rights could exist.

to exercise the sway thus given over the oceans as well as over the continent.

the danger of becoming simply a venal pleader, a creature who grinds out arguments on this or that side, for this or that client:—a mere legal beast of prey.

A new danger now beset him

He steered clear of the quicksands of useless scholarship, which had engulfed so many strong men of his time. The zeal of learned men in that period was largely given to knowing things not worth knowing, to discussing things not worth …

The dominant international gospel was that of Machiavelli.

Europe became one broad battlefield,—drenched in human blood and lighted from innumerable scaffolds.

Of all tyrannies of unreason in the modern world, one holds a supremely evil preeminence. It covered the period from the middle of the sixteenth century to the middle of the seventeenth

among those who sought his opinion and advice were such great discoverers as Acquapendente, Galileo, Torricelli, and Gilbert of Colchester, and that every one of these referred to him as an equal, and indeed as a master.

He [Paolo Sarpi] was one of the two foremost Italian statesmen since the Middle Ages, the other being Cavour.

taught the world what dogmatic theology is worth when it can be tested by science

taught the world after what manner the Holy Spirit guides the Councils of the Church

taught the world to understand political despotism and to hate it

between the Middle Ages and the nineteenth century, Italy produced three great men.

to understand his environment, the men and things with which he contended, and the results which he sought and accomplished.

to each of these personages is given a somewhat extended historical setting

I have constantly had in mind the average man intelligently interested in political affairs.

Carlyle uttered a pregnant truth when he said that the history of any country is in the biographies of the men who made it.

My early years abroad were spent mainly upon the European Continent, and public duties since have led me to make prolonged stays in various Continental states—France, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Russia—where the study of Continental …

especially worthy to be studied by those who aspire to serve their country