Quotes from William H. Prescott

Self-interest, be it enlightened, works indirectly for the public good.

The history of literature is the history of the human mind.

Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes!

a government, which does not rest on the sympathies of its subjects, cannot long abide; that human institutions, when not connected with human prosperity and progress, must fall, if not before the increasing light of civilisation, by the hand of violence; by violence from within, if not from without. And who shall lament their fall?

The life of the Spanish discoverers was one long day-dream. Illusion after illusion chased one another like the bubbles which the child throws off from his pipe, as bright, as beautiful, and as empty. They lived in a world of enchantment.

fickle monarch of France, seduced by the advantageous offers

sublimity than the aspect of this coast, as it is

But, to judge the action fairly, we must transport ourselves to the age when it happened.