Above all nations is humanity.
Goldwin Smith

America is supposed to be given over to ugliness. There are a good many ugly things there and the ugliest are the most pretentious.
Goldwin Smith

Art is expression, and to have high expression you must have something high to express.
Goldwin Smith

As to London we must console ourselves with the thought that if life outside is less poetic than it was in the days of old, inwardly its poetry is much deeper.
Goldwin Smith

But if anyone supposes that there was no commercial fraud in the Middle Ages, let him study the commercial legislation of England for that period, and his mind will be satisfied, if he has a mind to be satisfied and not only a fancy to run away with him.
Goldwin Smith

Dante himself is open to the suspicion of partiality: it is said, not without apparent ground, that he puts into hell all the enemies of the political cause, which, in his eyes, was that of Italy and God.
Goldwin Smith

Every one who has a heart, however ignorant of architecture he may be, feels the transcendent beauty and poetry of the mediaeval churches.
Goldwin Smith

I heard Thackeray thank Heaven for the purity of Dickens. I thanked Heaven for the purity of a greater than Dickens - Thackeray himself.
Goldwin Smith

If it were a real effort to live in the Middle Ages, your life would be one perpetual prevarication.
Goldwin Smith

It is evident that in the period designated as that of the kings, when Rome commenced her career of conquest, she was, for that time and country, a great and wealthy city.
Goldwin Smith


It is needless to say how great has been the influence of the doctrine of Evolution, or rather perhaps of the method of investigation to which it has given birth, upon the study of history, especially the history of institutions.
Goldwin Smith

Never had there been such an attempt to make conquest the servant of civilization. About keeping India there is no question. England has a real duty there.
Goldwin Smith

No student of history can fail to see the moral interest of the Middle Ages, any more than an artist can fail to see their aesthetic interest.
Goldwin Smith

Personality is lower than partiality.
Goldwin Smith

Rome was great in arms, in government, in law.
Goldwin Smith

That Rome was comparatively great and wealthy is certain.
Goldwin Smith

The insular arrogance of the English character is a commonplace joke.
Goldwin Smith

The materials of the novelist must be real; they must be gathered from the field of humanity by his actual observation.
Goldwin Smith

The natural barriers between England and Scotland were not sufficient to prevent the extension of the Saxon settlements and kingdoms across the border.
Goldwin Smith

The novelist must ground his work in faithful study of human nature.
Goldwin Smith