In order not to be astonished at obtaining victories, one ought not to think only of defeats.
A king is sometimes obliged to commit crimes; but they are the crimes of his position.
A constitution should be framed so as not to impede the action of government, nor force the government to its violation.
The greater the man, the less is he opinionative, he depends upon events and circumstances.
I have come to realise that men are not born to be free.
When a man is a favorite of Fortune she never takes him unawares, and, however astonishing her favors may be, she finds him ready.
It is an ambassador’s duty to stand up for his nation’s foreign policy in any era and under any government whatsoever. Ambassadors are, in the full meaning of the term, titled spies.
A general-in-chief should ask himself several times in the day, What if the enemy were to appear now in my front, or on my right, or my left?
In war, the general alone can judge of certain arrangements. It depends on him alone to conquer difficulties by his own superior talents and resolution.
When you have resolved to fight a battle, collect your whole force. Dispense with nothing. A single battalion sometimes decides the day.
When you determine to risk a battle, reserve to yourself every possible chance of success, more particularly if you have to deal with an adversary of superior talent, for if you are beaten, even in the midst of your magazines and your communications, woe to the vanquished!
In war as in love, to bring matters to a close, you must get close together.
I have never loved anyone for love’s sake except, perhaps, Josephine – a little.
A great reputation is a great noise, the more there is of it, and the further does it swell. Land, monuments, Nations, all fall, but the noise remains, and will reach to other generations.
Rashness succeeds often, still more often fails.
Fashion condemns us to many follies, the greatest is to make oneself its slave.
The true policy of government is to make use of aristocracy, but under the forms and in the spirit of democracy.
Moses has revealed the existence of God to his nation. Jesus Christ to the Roman world, Muhammad to the old continent...
Without cavalry, battles are without result.
Cavalry is useful before, during, and after the battle.