Proposing a toast to Napoleon Bonaparte at a literary dinner:
Gentlemen, you must not mistake me. I admit that the French Emperor is a tyrant. I admit he is a monster. I admit that he is the sworn foe of our nation, and, if you will, of the whole human race. But, gentlemen, we must be just to our great enemy. We must not forget that he once shot a bookseller.
The Life of Lord Macaulay (1876), G. O. Trevelyan
